An optimization model for integrated planning of railway traffic and network maintenance

Railway transportation systems are important for society and have many challenging and important planning problems. Train services as well as maintenance of a railway network need to be scheduled efficiently, but have mostly been treated as two separate planning problems. Since these activities are mutually exclusive they must be coordinated and should ideally be planned together. In this paper we present a mixed integer programming model for solving an integrated railway traffic and network maintenance problem. The aim is to find a long term tactical plan that optimally schedules train free windows sufficient for a given volume of regular maintenance together with the wanted train traffic. A spatial and temporal aggregation is used for controlling the available network capacity. The properties of the proposed model are analyzed and computational experiments on various synthetic problem instances are reported. Model extensions and possible modifications are discussed as well as future research directions.     

Macroscopic multiple-station short-turning model in case of complete railway blockages

In case of railway disruptions, traffic controllers are responsible for dealing with disrupted traffic and reduce the negative impact for the rest of the network. In case of a complete blockage when no train can use an entire track, a common practice is to short-turn trains. Trains approaching the blockage cannot proceed according to their original plans and have to short-turn at a station close to the disruption on both sides. This paper presents a Mixed Integer Linear Program that computes the optimal station and times for short-turning the affected train services during the three phases of a disruption. The proposed solution approach takes into account the interaction of the traffic between both sides of the blockage before and after the disruption. The model is applied to a busy corridor of the Dutch railway network. The computation time meets the real-time solution requirement. The case study gives insight into the importance of the disruption period in computing the optimal solution. It is concluded that different optimal short-turning solutions may exist depending on the start time of the disruption and the disruption length. For periodic timetables, the optimal short-turning choices repeat due to the periodicity of the timetable. In addition, it is observed that a minor extension of the disruption length may result in less delay propagation at the cost of more cancellations.     

浅谈综合工费对铁路隧道机械化施工经济性影响

为分析研究综合工费对大型机械钻爆法施工概算费用的影响,以3条新建双线铁路隧道项目数据为依托,核算出不同施工模式下的经济指标及工程费用;建立基期综合工费单价理论计算模型,计算出不同施工模式、不同围岩等级条件下新建铁路双线隧道临界综合工费单价。通过与普通钻爆法对比,大型机械钻爆法施工建造费用增长约10%;当基期综合工费高于226. 54元/工日时,大型机械钻爆法施工的经济性得以体现。     

基于模糊层次的铁路混装货物装运安全评价研究

随着客户运输需求的多样化升级,采用铁路混装货物装运模式在提升铁路运输效率、吸引多样货源等方面相较于单一品名装运显示出一定的优越性,同时混装货物装运面临的安全压力相较于单一品名装运出现骤增。为保障铁路混装货物装运安全,在阐述混装货物装运特点及安全控制要点的基础上,从"人防""物防""技防"3方面构建混装货物装运安全评价指标体系,采用层次分析法确定各指标权重,并利用模糊综合评价法对铁路混装货物装运安全进行评价,通过实例验证该评价方法的实用性及有效性,为铁路混装货物装运安全评价提供依据。     

视讯会议系统“一键点名”功能硏究

以铁路视讯会议网工程建设标准和视讯会议系统网管的标准配置文件为基础,通过反复试验和结果分析,确定广铁集团视讯会议操作繁琐的原因,并提出相应的优化方案,提高了广铁集团视讯会议系统会议控制的效率。     

基于分级节点的高速铁路货运动车组开行研究

“八纵八横”高速铁路网货运节点可以利用聚类分析法,依据货运总量、GDP、人口、社会消费品零售总额、快递业务量、线路连接数、城市类别和节点类别等指标划分为4个等级。基于灰色系统预测模型,预测2025年高速铁路货运量,构建数学模型计算保本货运量。依据节点划分、货运量预测、保本货运量结果,计算各等级节点中盈利OD所占的比例,结合日均OD量,分析各等级节点间开办高速铁路货运的可行性。研究表明,在一级节点之间可以开行高速铁路货运动车组专列,在二级节点之间可以开行客货联挂动车组,三、四级节点可以采用捎带运输的方式。     

Highway voting system: Embracing a possible paradigm shift in traffic data acquisition

The integration of internet and mobile phones has opened the door to a new wave of utilizing private vehicles as probes not only for performance evaluation but for traffic control as well, gradually replacing the role of traffic surveillance systems as the dominant source of traffic data. To prepare for such a paradigm shift, one needs to overcome some key institutional barriers, in particular, the privacy issue. A Highway Voting System (HVS) is proposed to address this issue in which drivers provide link- and/or path-based vehicle data to the traffic management system in the form of “votes” in order to receive favorable service from traffic control. The proposed HVS offers a platform that links data from individual vehicles directly with traffic control. In the system, traffic control responds to voting vehicles in a way similar to the current system responding to prioritized vehicles and providing the requested services accordingly. We show in the paper that the proposed “voting” system can effectively resolve the privacy issue which often hampers traffic engineers from getting detailed data from drivers. Strategies to entice drivers into “voting” so as to increase the market penetration level under all traffic conditions are discussed. Though the focus of the paper is on addressing the institutional issues associated with data acquisition from individual vehicles, other research topics associated with the proposed system are identified. Two examples are given to demonstrate the impact of the proposed system on algorithm development and traffic control.     

Traffic modelling in system boundary expansion of road pavement life cycle assessment

This paper uses a case study of a UK inter-urban road, to explore the impact of extending the system boundary of road pavement life cycle assessment (LCA) to include increased traffic emissions due to delays during maintenance. Some previous studies have attempted this but have been limited to hypothetical scenarios or simplified traffic modelling, with no validation or sensitivity analysis. In this study, micro-simulation modelling of traffic was used to estimate emissions caused by delays at road works, for several traffic management options. The emissions were compared to those created by the maintenance operation, estimated using an LCA model. In this case study, the extra traffic emissions caused by delays at road works are relatively small, compared to those from the maintenance process, except for hydrocarbon emissions. However, they are generally close to, or above, the materiality threshold recommended in PAS2050 for estimating carbon footprints, and reach 5–10% when traffic flow levels are increased (hypothetically) or when traffic management is imposed outside times of lowest traffic flow. It is recommended, therefore, that emissions due to traffic disruption at road works should be included within the system boundary of road pavement LCA and carbon footprint studies and should be considered in developing guidelines for environmental product declarations of road pavement maintenance products and services.     

Analysis of cross effect on inherent deformation during the line heating process – Part 1 – Single crossed heating lines

This paper describes the effect of previous heating on inherent deformation by a subsequent heating line, more specifically, the case of two heating lines intersecting (crossing) each other. The paper has been divided into two parts. In the first part, the case of single crossed heating lines is studied in detail. The second part of the paper, discusses the case of more than one crossed heating lines. The novelty of the work lies in revealing the cross effect and how, factors such as, for example, the heating condition and the plate geometry, influence the resulting inherent deformation of crossed heating. In addition, relationships to easily get these influences are provided. The results are suitable for a wide range of heating conditions and plate thickness.     

Nonlinear pricing in linear cities with elastic demands

Nonlinear road pricing charges each traveler based on his/her trip’s corresponding particular attribute level. In order to help authorities in designing road pricing systems at a strategic level, this paper attempts to address two fundamental questions: (i) what is the value of pricing’s nonlinearity for mitigating traffic congestion? (ii) if a nonlinear toll function is implemented, should it be convex, concave or other shape? Specifically, we consider distance-based pricing in linear cities. For linear monocentric cities with heterogeneous travelers, we show that the system optimal distance-based pricing indeed exhibits nonlinearity. It is proved that: (i) the cost-based system optimal toll function is monotonically increasing and concave with respect to the traveled distance; (ii) the time-based system optimal toll function always exists and is unique. If the initial proportion of each traveler group is invariant along a corridor and the demand function is of exponential type, then the time-based system optimal toll function enables the travelers, living further away from a city center, to face a lower toll level per unit distance. For a linear polycentric city, we demonstrate: (i) there always exists the system optimal differentiated (in terms of city centers) toll functions; (ii) it is highly possible that the system optimal non-differentiated toll function does not exist. Hence, we further propose an optimal toll design model, prove the Lipschitz continuity of its objective and adopt a global-optimization algorithm to solve it.