Train Stop Research Articles

Optimization for Stop Plan of Passenger‐Like Container Train with Container Distributions and Train Utilization Rates

The railway container transportation is attracting more and more attention in China. In order to improve the service quality, a novel concept of passenger‐like container train is proposed, which can reduce the accumulation time of containers at the origin station and increase the train frequency compared with the traditional container through train. With the aim of generating optimal operation strategies for passenger‐like container trains, this paper establishes an optimization model for the train stop plan problem, in which the objective is to minimize the total number of stops. In addition, the specific container‐to‐train distribution and the utilization rate of each individual train are considered. The proposed model is a mixed‐integer linear programming one, which can be solved by using the CPLEX solver. Finally, the numerical experiments are performed to test the effectiveness of our model by using a simple railway line and the China Railway Express corridor as examples. The results prove the advantages of our method.

An Approach for Train Stop Planning With Variable Train Length and Stop Time of High-Speed Rail Under Stochastic Demand

This paper studied the train stop planning problem with variable train length and stop time under stochastic demand (TSPPWVTLSTSD). As we know, stop time and train length were often considered in a fixed manner in train stop planning for high-speed rail (HSR). One obvious disadvantage was that it often resulted in insufficient time for passengers to get on or get off a train. In addition, fixed train length may cause a waste of train capacity. And travel demand was usually assumed to be deterministic, although travel demand usually was stochastic. In this paper, we presented an optimization model that simultaneously optimized the stop-schedule, the stop time schedule and the train length schedule for each train trip under stochastic demand. By formulating deterministic equivalents to the chance constraints, we obtained a deterministic mixed integer model. To solve the problem, a novel column generation-based heuristic solution technique based on Dantzig-Wolfe decomposition principle and column generation procedure was proposed. Some numerical experiments and a case study based on real-world data were used to demonstrate that the proposed solution method can yield a service plan within a reasonable time compared with ILOG Cplex. Besides, the variable train length and stop time model needed fewer carriages and also gave rise to less total time loss compared with the fixed scenario.

Application of a Mixed Integer Programming Model in Coordinating Stopping Schedules of Intra- and Inter-trains for a High Speed Rail Line

In a high speed rail network, there are usually two types of trains running on a single rail line, which are intra-trains and inter-trains. Inappropriate stopping schedules for both types of trains may cause negative influence on train operation, e.g., stopping schedules lack regularity, inter-trains consume too much route capacity of intra-trains, and intra-passengers are transported by inter-trains instead. This paper applies a mixed integer programming model in coordinating stopping schedules of intra- and inter-trains for a high speed rail line. The goal is to increase regularity of both types of trains on a main rail line, in the meanwhile, to rationalize the division of labor of intra- and inter-trains in term of transporting intra- and inter-passengers. A numerical experiment is implemented based on a real-world instance. The results show that a series of coordination indicators are improved compared to those of an original train stopping schedule, which demonstrates the effectiveness of our application approach.

A seat assignment model for high-speed railway ticket booking system with customer preference consideration

ABSTRACTThis paper addresses the railway revenue management problem of homogeneous seats. Within a certain period of time, multiple trains characterized by different train stop plans are alternatives to each other. For homogeneous seats, multiple fare classes are designed based on the customer preference orders of different customer types. A seat inventory control method is developed based on characteristics of the China high-speed railway (HSR). In addition, an efficient heuristic approach is proposed to solve the nonlinear integer programming model of the HSR revenue management problem. The Beijing-Shanghai HSR is taken as a case study. Numerical examples show that revenue can be increased by reasonably controlling the deterministic booking limits of different fare classes according to customer preference orders. Furthermore, our method can increase the total revenue by optimizing the resources of multiple trains with different train stop plans.

Study on the performance improvement of urban rail transit system

The performance improvement is closely related to the energy-saving operation of urban rail transit system and the improvement of service quality, which involves the optimization of infrastructures, the application of advanced train control technology, the highly efficient transportation organization, and the recycle and utilization of regenerative energy, etc. With the energy consumption as an entry, we first discuss the performance of urban rail transit system, determinate the corresponding performance evaluation indexes, and establish the top-down decomposition architecture of global performance. Then, we analyze the performance emergence mechanism of urban rail transit system, and build the difference equations of calculating train behavior in the constant power and natural characteristic regions and the mathematical model of train behavior optimization. The simulations are used to analyze the influence of train light-weighting, train control, and the load ratio on the energy efficiency of train operation, which can help to improve the system performance. Finally, we discuss the recycle and utilization of regenerative energy generated from train braking, the energy-saving operation of the environment control systems, and the optimization of train stop scheme, etc. The research shows that the potential of improving the performance of urban rail transit system is enormous, and deserves more attention.

Approach and application on high-speed train stop plan for better passenger transfer efficiency: the China case

ABSTRACTA customer-oriented dynamic cyclical adjustment approach is applied to optimize a high-speed railway train stop plan, which includes five steps that should be repeated until reasonable passenger transfer efficiency is reached. First, an improved Frank-Wolfe algorithm is used to assign passenger flow. Second, the obtained train stop plan is evaluated. Finally, the evaluation result is used as a feedback to adjust the train stop plan, a new line plan scheme with new train stop plan is obtained, and another passenger flow distribution is applied. A numerical experiment is carried out by taking the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway network in China as a background.

Urban rail departure capacity analysis based on a cellular automaton model**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. U1434207).

As an important traffic mode, urban rail transit is constantly developing toward improvement in service capacity and quality. When an urban rail transit system is evaluated in terms of its service capacity, the train departure capacity is an important index that can objectively reflect the service level of an urban rail transit facility. In light of the existing cellular automaton models, this paper proposes a suitable cellular automaton model to analyze the train departure capacity of urban rail transit under different variable factors and conditions. The established model can demonstrate the train operating processes by implementing the proposed sound rules, including the rules of train departure at the origin and intermediate stations, and the velocity and position updating rules. The properties of train traffic are analyzed via numerical experiments. The numerical results show that the departure capacity is negatively affected by the train departure control manner. In addition, (i) the real-time signal control can offer a higher train service frequency; (ii) the departure capacity gradually rises with the decrease in the line design speed to a limited extent; (iii) the departure capacity decreases with extension in the train length; (iv) the number of departed trains decreases as the train stop time increases; (v) the departure capacity is not affected by the section length. However, the longer the length, the worse the service quality of the urban rail transit line. The experiments show that the proposed cellular automaton model can be used to analyze the train service capacity of an urban rail transit system by performing quantitative analysis under various considered factors, conditions, and management modes.

Stop Plan of Express and Local Train for Regional Rail Transit Line

The urban rail transit line operating in the express and local train mode can solve the problem of disequilibrium passenger flow and space and meet the rapid arrival demand of long-distance passengers. In this paper, the Logit model is used to analyze the behavior of passengers choosing trains by considering the sensitivity of travel time and travel distance. Then, based on the composition of passenger travel time, an integer programming model for train stop scheme, aimed at minimizing the total passenger travel time, is proposed. Finally, combined with a certain regional rail line in Shenzhen, the plan is solved by genetic algorithm and evaluated through the time benefit, carrying capacity, and energy consumption efficiency. The simulation result shows that although the capacity is reduced by 6 trains, the optimized travel time per person is 10.34 min, and the energy consumption is saved by about 16%, which proves that the proposed model is efficient and feasible.

Equity-oriented skip-stopping schedule optimization in an oversaturated urban rail transit network

In this study, we focus on improving system-wide equity performance in an oversaturated urban rail transit network based on multi-commodity flow formulation. From the system perspective, an urban rail transit network is a distributed system, where a set of resources (i.e., train capacity) is shared by a number of users (i.e., passengers), and equitable individuals and groups should receive equal shares of resources. However, when oversaturation occurs in an urban rail transit network during peak hours, passengers waiting at different stations may receive varying shares of train capacity leading to the inequity problem under train all-stopping pattern. Train skip-stopping pattern is an effective operational approach, which holds back some passengers at stations and re-routes their journeys in the time dimension based on the available capacity of each train. In this study, the inequity problem in an oversaturated urban rail transit network is analyzed using a multi-commodity flow modeling framework. In detail, first, discretized states, corresponding to the number of missed trains for passengers, are constructed in a space-time-state three-dimensional network, so that the system-wide equity performance can be viewed as a distribution of all passengers in different states. Different from existing flow-based optimization models, we formulate individual passenger and train stopping pattern as commodity and network structure in the multi-commodity flow-modeling framework, respectively. Then, we aim to find an optimal commodity flow and well-designed network structure through the proposed multi-commodity flow model and simultaneously achieve the equitable distribution of all passengers and the optimal train skip-stopping pattern. To quickly solve the proposed model and find an optimal train skip-stopping pattern with preferable system-wide equity performance, the proposed linear programming model can be effectively decomposed to a least-cost sub-problem with positive arc costs for each individual passenger and a least-cost sub-problem with negative arc costs for each individual train under a Lagrangian relaxation framework. For application and implementation, the proposed train skip-stopping optimization model is applied to a simple case and a real-world case based on Batong Line in the Beijing Subway Network. The simple case demonstrates that our proposed Lagrangian relaxation framework can obtain the approximate optimal solution with a small-gap lower bound and a lot of computing time saved compared with CPLEX solver. The real-world case based on Batong Line in the Beijing Subway Network compares the equity and efficiency indices under the operational approach of train skip-stopping pattern with those under the train all-stopping pattern to state the advantage of the train skip-stopping operational approach.

Joint optimization model for train scheduling and train stop planning with passengers distribution on railway corridors

Aiming to provide a more practical modeling framework for railway optimization problem, this paper investigates the joint optimization model for train scheduling, train stop planning and passengers distributing by considering the passenger demands over each origin and destination (OD) pair on a high-speed railway corridor. Specifically, through introducing new decision variables associated with the number of passengers distributed in each train over each OD pair and formulating the connection constraints between the train stop plan and passenger distributions, the total travel time of all the trains is firstly adopted as the objective function to optimize the train stop plan and timetable with the passenger demands being guaranteed. Then, based on the generated train stop plan and timetable, the passenger distribution plan is further optimized with the purpose of minimizing the total travel time of all the passengers. Finally, the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed approaches are verified by the obtained train stop plans, timetables and passenger distribution plans for a sample railway corridor and Wuhan–Guangzhou high-speed railway corridor. The computational results showed that the proposed methods can effectively obtain the train stop plan, timetable and passenger distribution plan at the same time.

Improvement of Overspeed Protection for Automatic Train Stop System

Improvement of Overspeed Protection for Automatic Train Stop System

Competition Control Method for the Train Stopping at the Station in the Moving Block Control System

Competition Control Method for the Train Stopping at the Station in the Moving Block Control System

Integrated optimization for train operation zone and stop plan with passenger distributions

With the aim of generating system-optimal operation strategies, this paper proposes a new integrated optimization method for train operation zone, stop plan and passenger distribution optimization problems on the basis of a train stop planning model. Through the introduction of a set of critical system constraints, the problem is rigorously formulated as a two-objective mixed-integer linear programming problem with the objectives of minimizing the total running distance of unoccupied seats and the total number of stops for all involved trains. Finally, two sets of numerical experiments are implemented using GAMS to demonstrate the performance of the proposed approach.

Using Predictive Evaluation to Design, Evaluate, and Improve Training for Polio Volunteers.

Predictive Evaluation (PE) uses a four-step process to predict results then designs and evaluates a training intervention accordingly. In 2012, the Sustainable Management Development Program (SMDP) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention used PE to train Stop Transmission of Polio (STOP) program volunteers. Stakeholders defined specific beliefs and practices that volunteers should demonstrate. These predictions and adult learning practices were used to design a curriculum to train four cohorts. At the end of each workshop, volunteers completed a beliefs survey and wrote goals for intended actions. The goals were analyzed for acceptability based on four PE criteria. The percentage of acceptable goals and the beliefs survey results were used to define the quality of the workshop. A postassignment adoption evaluation was conducted for two cohorts, using an online survey and telephone or in-person structured interviews. The results were compared with the end of workshop findings. The percentage of acceptable goals across the four cohorts ranged from 49% to 85%. In the adoption evaluation of two cohorts, 88% and 94% of respondents reported achieving or making significant progress toward their goal. A comparison of beliefs survey responses across the four cohorts indicated consistencies in beliefs that aligned with stakeholders' predictions. Goal statements that participants write at the end of a workshop provide data to evaluate training quality. Beliefs surveys surface attitudes that could help or hinder workplace performance. The PE approach provides an innovative framework for health worker training and evaluation that emphasizes performance.

Time availabllity between public transport stops and stations and train stops on tlie route Szczecin Glowny-Police

The article presents an analysis of the time availability between public transport stops and railway stations and stops on the route Szczecin Glowny-Police from the point of view of their integration. The methodology of the research was based on an analysis of public transport timetables in Szczecin, taking into account the transit time from the junction or the final public transport stop to the station or train stop.

A robust and fault tolerant approach for automatic train stop control system design

This paper is about an advanced braking control strategy for rail transportation systems. The motivation is to improve the efficiency of the control in real-world conditions taking into account modeling errors, unknown perturbations and occurring failures. This will allow traffic frequency improvement along with overall safety and security enhancement. The strategy is based on an integrated approach, including a fault tolerant control strategy along with perturbation estimation and compensation, and a fault detection module. Fault detection, if positive, will be used to switch the controller into a “safe mode” avoiding the fault and improving control precision with respect to stopping position requirements. Simulations are provided to prove the efficiency of the proposed approach.

What happened to you?

![Figure][1] There’s a bench near the train stop by my house where a man often sits. On days when he seems to be in a good mood, he uses a dinosaur hand puppet to say hello, and maybe ask for food or money. He’s thin and permanently sunburned, and the lines around his otherwise young-

Getting People Around After the Trains Stop Running

Late-night transit service provides an important connection to jobs, entertainment venues, and other destinations in San Francisco, California, and other major cities. In 2016, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority led a comprehensive reexamination of the region’s late-night bus network, which provided service between about midnight and 5:00 a.m., while the region’s rail services were closed for maintenance. Previous literature established the general characteristics of late-night transit users and trip generators but did not develop and validate the use of a specific tool to plan service. Other researchers also developed transit propensity indexes (TPIs) with the use of demographic data for transit service in general but not specifically for the late-night period. A new approach was used to assess transit demand for late-night work trips by using Census Transportation Planning Package data to identify late-night work trips and combining those trip volumes with additional demographic factors associated with reliance on public transit to develop a late-night TPI. The hypothesis was that high TPI scores were an indicator of areas where late-night transit would attract strong ridership. The research team compared the index results with ridership on existing routes by using a stop-level regression analysis to validate that the TPI is predictive of ridership at a statistically significant level. It was concluded that the TPI together with productivity analysis of existing routes supported identification of potential late-night transit network changes to improve coverage in areas where riders would most need and use the service.

On the real time modeling of interlocking system of passenger lines of Rawalpindi Cantt train station

Abstract Purpose Recent advancements in technology have enabled railway organizations to shift from manual to computer based automated interlocking systems for increasing their efficiency and profits. Since automated systems are complex and interlocking systems are safety critical systems, these systems should be modeled and verified against safety requirements to weed out any design bugs which might lead to catastrophes during their system life cycles. In this study, we model software based automated interlocking control system of a train station, located at Rawalpindi Cantt (Pakistan). Methods We have modeled software based automated interlocking control system using timed automata and verified its correctness using UPPAAL model checking software. Timed automata have successfully been used for the modeling and verification of real-time systems. Results We constructed a real-time model of railyard interlocking system by employing a model-checking approach to determine behavior of the model under various conditions. The model checker ascertains the absence of errors in a system by inspecting all the possible states or scenarios of the modeled system. The results show that important properties related to the safety of the designed interlocking system of the railyard management system can be verified using our presented approach. These properties ranged from collision and de-railment avoidance to checking the correct error handling functionality of the timed automata models. Conclusions The final modular design can easily adapt to the route upgrades and changes within the station by simple variable adjustments. Based on the laid down methodology and verification techniques, this study can be further built upon, extended and linked to cover the shunting aspect of the train station operations, run through operations, introducing automatic train stop (ATS) functionality and recommend three to four aspect traffic signaling for the train station. This study takes a first step in providing an indigenous solution to an indigenous problem of designing an upgraded and verified signaling infrastructure for Pakistan Railway’s Rawalpindi Cantt train station.

Indoor and outdoor measurement of airborne particulates on a commuter train running partly in tunnels

Wear processes from mechanical braking, rail/wheel contact, the railway electrification system and re-suspended materials due to the turbulence of passing trains in tunnels and stations have been suggested to be the main contributors to particulate matter levels inside trains. In this study, onboard monitoring was performed on a commuter train stopping at underground and aboveground stations. The concentration and size distribution of particulates were monitored for both indoor and outdoor levels. The results show that the levels of PM10 and PM2.5 inside the train were about one-fifth of the outdoor levels. Significant increases in indoor particulate number concentrations were observed in tunnel environments and there was a slight increase when the doors were open. Differences in the size distributions of micro- and nano-sized particulates could be identified for different tunnels.