Uncovering correlation between train delay and train exposure to bad weather

Abstract

Railway plays an indispensable role in long-distance passenger transport. Here, we investigate train exposure time to bad weather and its influence on an important railway operation problem, train delay. We find that train delay is more likely to occur in snow and rain weather and the total train delay time is in a good correlation with the train exposure time to bad weather. We also develop a train delay network to identify the communities of railway stations from the perspective of train delay co-occurrence. The obtained community structure can be potentially useful in designing regional management strategy for delayed trains.