A Distributionally Robust Optimization Method for Passenger Flow Control Strategy and Train Scheduling on an Urban Rail Transit Line

Regular coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)epidemic prevention and control have raised new require-ments that necessitate operation-strategy innovation in urban rail transit.To alleviate increasingly seri-ous congestion and further reduce the risk of cross-infection,a novel two-stage distributionally robust optimization(DRO)model is explicitly constructed,in which the probability distribution of stochastic scenarios is only partially known in advance.In the proposed model,the mean-conditional value-at-risk(CVaR)criterion is employed to obtain a tradeoff between the expected number of waiting passen-gers and the risk of congestion on an urban rail transit line.The relationship between the proposed DRO model and the traditional two-stage stochastic programming(SP)model is also depicted.Furthermore,to overcome the obstacle of model solvability resulting from imprecise probability distributions,a discrepancy-based ambiguity set is used to transform the robust counterpart into its computationally tractable form.A hybrid algorithm that combines a local search algorithm with a mixed-integer linear programming(MILP)solver is developed to improve the computational efficiency of large-scale instances.Finally,a series of numerical examples with real-world operation data are executed to validate the pro-posed approaches.

Scheduling trains on railway network using random walk method

According to random walk, in this paper, we propose a new traffic model for scheduling trains on a railway network. In the proposed method, using some iteration rules for walkers, the departure and the arrival times of trains at each station are determined. We test the proposed method on an assumed railway network. The numerical simulations and the analytical results demonstrate that the proposed method provides an effective tool for scheduling trains. Some characteristic behaviours of train movement can be reproduced, such as train delay.

Study on Development of Train Running Diagram Optimization

This article from a whole new perspective on existing studies was classified, from the specific issues addressed by starting on two key issues of recent train scheduling plan: train running diagram and train operation adjustment. Solutions, basic ideas and researches are discussed in detail. Among them, the train working diagram is divided into single and double lane sections and Passenger Train Running Diagram. And the train operation adjustment includes the real-time adjustment, the service of train insert and the conflict prediction. This paper introduces automatic train operation dispatching system in scheduling applications, and discusses the train scheduling problems and the future direction of development.

Particle swarm optimization for train schedule of Y-type train routing in urban rail transit

The train schedule usually includes train stop schedule,routing scheme and formation scheme.It is the basis of subway transportation.Combining the practical experience of transport organizations and the principle of the best match between transport capacity and passenger flow demand,taking the minimum value of passenger travel costs and corporation operating costs as the goal,considering the constraints of the maximum rail capacity,the minimum departure frequency and the maximum available electric multiple unit,an optimization model for city subway Y-type operation mode is constructed to determine the operation section of mainline as well as branch line and the train frequency of the Y-type operation mode.The particle swarm optimization(PSO)algorithm based on classification learning is used to solve the model,and the effectiveness of the model and algorithm is verified by a practical case.The results show that the length of branch line in Y-type operation affects the cost of waiting time of passengers significantly.

A New Multi-Objective Model to Optimise Rail Transport Scheduler

The sugarcane transport system plays a critical role in the overall performance of Australia’s sugarcane industry. An inefficient sugarcane transport system interrupts the raw sugarcane harvesting process, delays the delivery of sugarcane to the mill, deteriorates the sugar quality, increases the usage of empty bins, and leads to the additional sugarcane production costs. Due to these negative effects, there is an urgent need for an efficient sugarcane transport schedule that should be developed by the rail schedulers. In this study, a multi-objective model using mixed integer programming (MIP) is developed to produce an industry-oriented scheduling optimiser for sugarcane rail transport system. The exact MIP solver (IBM ILOG-CPLEX) is applied to minimise the makespan and the total operating time as multi-objective functions. Moreover, the so-called Siding neighbourhood search (SNS) algorithm is developed and integrated with Sidings Satisfaction Priorities (SSP) and Rail Conflict Elimination (RCE) algorithms to solve the problem in a more efficient way. In implementation, the sugarcane transport system of Kalamia Sugar Mill that is a coastal locality about 1050 km northwest of Brisbane city is investigated as a real case study. Computational experiments indicate that high-quality solutions are obtainable in industry-scale applications.