Abstract
In view of the conflict between the time-variation of urban rail transit passenger demand and the homogeneity of the train timetable, this paper takes into account the interests of both passengers and operators to build an urban rail transit scheduling model to acquire an optimized time-dependent train timetable. Based on the dynamic passenger volumes of origin-destination pairs from the automatic fare collection system, the model focuses on minimizing the total passenger waiting time with constraints on time interval between two consecutive trains, number and capacity of trains available, and load factor of trains. A hybrid algorithm which consists of the main algorithm based on genetic algorithm and the nested algorithm based on train traction calculation and safety distance requirement is designed to solve the model. To justify the effectiveness and the practical value of the proposed model and algorithm, a case of Nanjing Metro Line S1 is illustrated in this paper. The result shows that the optimized train timetable has advantage compared to the original one.
Highlights
In recent years, with the rapid increase of urban population, the contradiction between transportation supply and demand is becoming more and more prominent, which leads to the rapid development of urban rail transit in China
A periodic train timetable with constant departure interval could show the conciseness and effectiveness under the condition of passengers arriving at stations at a steady rate, but when the passenger arrival rate varies with time, especially in oversaturation condition, a periodic train timetable would lead to passengers waiting time to increase sharply during peak hours and the load factor of trains reduced in the off-peak period
A hybrid algorithm is designed to solve the model, which consists of the main algorithm based on genetic algorithm to solve the train departure time at the starting stations of up and down directions and the nested algorithm based on train traction calculation and safety distance requirement to solve the train departure time at other stations
Summary
With the rapid increase of urban population, the contradiction between transportation supply and demand is becoming more and more prominent, which leads to the rapid development of urban rail transit in China. Combined with the characteristics of urban travel pattern, on the one hand, the train scheduling should be formulated based on the time-variation of urban rail transit passenger demand. Wang et al [10] built an optimal model to schedule the departure time of each bus service based on time-dependent traffic and customer demand. Compared with the existing time-dependent scheduling models, the model is more consistent with the dynamic performance while train traction, idle running, and brake; the constraint of the load factor of trains is added to ensure the benefits of operation enterprises; the model is appropriate for any passenger flow condition either unsaturated or oversaturated; and turn-back process of trains is considered to realize the synchronization scheduling of both up and down directions
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