Potential railway benefits according to enhanced cooperation between traffic management and automatic train operation

Abstract

The increasing demand for transportation services in already heavily used railway networks has fostered extensive innovations in railway traffic management and train operation. These innovations aim at increasing the operational efficiency and degree of automation. In general, there are two fields of innovations. One is the development of support systems for dispatchers, and another is the development of support system for drivers. The former one focuses on supporting dispatchers' work with traffic management system on infrastructure side, while the latter one is centered on minimizing driving-inaccuracies by introducing automatic operation on train side. Both fields have proven successful separately, but each lacks some benefits of the other. This is because in the strategy of dispatcher support systems, it assumes trains to behave exactly as instructed and its performance depends on the accuracy of traffic plan execution, while the driver support system is centered on train level optimization resulting in a lack of knowledge about other trains in the network. Therefore, this paper addressed to a close coordination and cooperation between the dispatcher support system and driver support system, thereby making progress towards better performance of the railway system. In this regard, this paper proposed an improved railway optimization model by integration of traffic management system with automatic train operation. To make further progress, this paper introduces the analytical hierarchy process into the optimization model, so as to bring a structured technique for organizing and analyzing complex decisions. The analytical hierarchy process delivered a clear and logical structure to describe the optimization system as well as flexibility to accommodate different customers' requirements. In this respect, this paper introduces analytical hierarchy process into traffic management system and automatic train operation, aiming at a balance among multiple objectives: capacity increase, energy conservation, and punctuality.