Calculating the maximal number of additional freight trains in a railway network

Abstract

This paper describes an approach to maximise the number of train runs through global networks. Nowadays the capacity of railway lines as well as the capacity of railway nodes can be calculated by means of analytic algorithms, especially by applying queueing theory. Currently there is no generally accepted method to allocate the overall capacity of lines and nodes of such networks by using analytic algorithms. The interactions of these elements (e.g. a node might be the limiting factor for an adjacent line) are part of the approach presented in this paper. To maximise the number of train runs in a global network the passenger trains will be fixed on their train curses so that the remaining capacity could be used for freight train service. Existing or detected bottlenecks could be eliminated by means of sensible rerouting due to the optimisation, which will reveal the best train paths through the network. The paper concludes with an illustrative computation for a generic railway sub-network.