Abstract
In order to improve current rail timetabling processes, the suitability of train departure times for passengers should be included in timetable assessment. To achieve this, one possibility is to calculate the change in consumer and producer surplus (i.e., the economic welfare) resulting from departure time shifts in rail timetables. However, existing methods for this calculation are quite limited. To fill this gap, we propose a new method in the current paper. This method enables comparing most scenarios involved in interregional rail timetabling in terms of economic welfare. To this end, our method takes advantage of schedule-based models that allow assessing the impact of departure time shifts on the demand and valuation of each possible route using the timetable. As a proof of concept, we illustrate this method on a case study on the busiest Swedish interregional line. This case study shows the potential of the method to deliver detailed calculations with analysis of equity effects. To conclude, the method presented in this paper improves on the current literature, and it can be used to improve timetable optimisation algorithms or to better resolve conflicts between train path requests.
Highlights
The practical methods currently used by infrastructure managers do not enable to accurately include departure time suitability in timetabling. This identifies a need to propose a general and accurate method to calculate changes in economic welfare related to departure time shifts involved in interregional rail timetabling
We show an example of discretised desired departure time distribution in our case study in section 3.1.3 (Fig. 7)
We presented in this paper a new method that enables comparing the effects of departure time shifts in a timetable in terms of economic welfare
Summary
In Europe, rail market deregulation and increased rail demand have provoked an increase in rail traffic on certain connections This increase is desired by public authorities because it contributes to reduce negative externalities (e.g., carbon dioxide emissions) related to car and air travel. This increase in traffic reduces available rail capacity, forcing infrastructure managers to refuse network access to additional trains. Departure and arrival times need to be arranged in an operational timetable that includes the capacity constraints of the infrastructure Achieving this timetable is a complex process with multiple and sometimes contradictory objectives. There might be room for improvement in the timetabling process, and such improvements could contribute to offer better supply to rail passengers
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