Track Allocation Optimization in Multi-Direction High-Speed Railway Stations

Abstract

Track allocation optimization in railway stations is one of the most fundamental problems for scheduling trains, especially in multi-direction high-speed railway stations. With the construction of high-speed rail networks, this kind of station has become increasingly common. However, the track allocation depends not only on the station tracks, train timetable, and rolling stock plan, but also on the resources in the station throat area. As a result, an effective track allocation plan becomes significant but also difficult. In this paper, we consider all these factors to make the results more practicable and an integer linear model that minimizes the total occupation time of resources in the throat area is presented. A flexible track utilization rule is also adopted to this model to fit the characteristics of the multi-direction station. Meanwhile, a detailed explanation of resources’ occupation time is illustrated to facilitate the representation of the conflicting constraints. To resolve these issues, we use a commercial solver with its default parameters. A computational experiment of a station is conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed model. The resources utilization plan indicates that the capacity of a station is limited by the throat area, rather than by the station tracks.