| 1. |
- Andersson, Emma V.
(författare)
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Assessment of Robustness in Railway Traffic Timetables
- 2014
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- A tendency seen for the last decades in many European railway networks is a growing demand for capacity. An increased number of operating trains has led to a delay sensitive system where it is hard to recover from delays, where even relatively small delays are easily propagating to other traffic.The overall aim of this thesis is to analyse the robustness of railway traffic timetables; why delays are propagating in the network and how the timetable design and dispatching strategies influence the delays. In this context we want to establish quantitative measures of timetable robustness. There is a need for measures that can be used by the timetable constructors. Measures that identify where and how to improve the robustness and thereby indicating how and where margin time should be inserted. It is also important that the measures can capture interdependencies between different trains.In this thesis we introduce the concept of critical points, which is a practical approach to identify robustness weaknesses in a timetable. In contrast to other measures, critical points can be used to identify specific locations in both time and space. The corresponding measure, Robustness in Critical Points (RCP) provides the timetable constructors with concrete suggestions for which trains that should be given more runtime or headway margin. The measure also identifies where the margin time should be allocated to achieve a higher robustness.In a case study we show that the delay propagation is highly related to the operational train dispatching. This study shows that the current prioritisation rule used in Sweden results in an economic inefficiency and therefore should be revised. This statement is further supported by RCP and the importance of giving the train dispatchers more flexibility to efficiently solve conflict situations.
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| 2. |
- Josyula, Sai Prashanth, 1992-
(författare)
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Parallel algorithms for real-time railway rescheduling
- 2019
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In railway traffic systems, it is essential to achieve a high punctuality to satisfy the goals of the involved stakeholders. Thus, whenever disturbances occur, it is important to effectively reschedule trains while considering the perspectives of various stakeholders. The train rescheduling problem is a complex task to solve, both from a practical and a computational perspective. From the latter perspective, a reason for the complexity is that the rescheduling solution(s) of interest may be dispersed across a large solution space. This space needs to be navigated fast while avoiding portions leading to undesirable solutions and exploring portions leading to potentially desirable solutions. The use of parallel computing enables such a fast navigation of the search tree. Though competitive algorithmic approaches for train rescheduling are a widespread topic of research, limited research has been conducted to explore the opportunities and challenges in parallelizing them.This thesis presents research studies on how trains can be effectively rescheduled while considering the perspectives of passengers along with that of other stakeholders. Parallel computing is employed, with the aim of advancing knowledge about parallel algorithms for solving the problem under consideration.The presented research contributes with parallel algorithms that reschedule a train timetable during disturbances and studies the incorporation of passenger perspectives during rescheduling. Results show that the use of parallel algorithms for train rescheduling improves the speed of solution space navigation and the quality of the obtained solution(s) within the computational time limit.This thesis consists of an introduction and overview of the work, followed by four research papers which present: (1) A literature review of studies that propose and apply computational support for train rescheduling with a passenger-oriented objective; (2) A parallel heuristic algorithm to solve the train rescheduling problem on a multi-core parallel architecture; (3) A conflict detection module for train rescheduling, which performs its computations on a graphics processing unit; and (4) A redesigned parallel algorithm that considers multiple objectives while rescheduling.
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| 3. |
- Khoshniyat, Fahimeh
(författare)
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Optimization-Based Methods for Revising Train Timetables with Focus on Robustness
- 2016
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- With increase in the use of railway transport, ensuring robustness in railway timetables has never been this important. In a dense railway timetable even a small disturbance can propagate easily and affect trains' arrival and departure times. In a robust timetable small delays are absorbed and knock-on effects are prevented effectively. The aim of this thesis is to study how optimization tools can support the generation of robust railway traffic timetables. We address two Train Timetabling Problems (TTP) and for both problems we apply Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) to solve them from network management perspectives. The first problem is how robustness in a given timetable can be assessed and ensured. To tackle this problem, a headway-based method is introduced. The proposed method is implemented in real timetables and evaluated from performance perspectives. Furthermore, the impact of the proposed method on capacity utilization, heterogeneity and the speed of trains, is monitored. Results show that the proposed method can improve robustness without imposing major changes in timetables. The second problem addressed in the thesis is how robustness can be assessed and maintained in a given timetable when allocating additional traffic and maintenance slots. Different insertion strategies are studied and their consequences on capacity utilization and on the properties of the timetables are analyzed. Two different insertion strategies are considered: i) simultaneous and ii) stepwise insertion. The results show that inserting the additional trains simultaneously usually results in generating more optimal solutions. However, solving this type of problem is computationally challenging. We also observed that the existing robustness metrics cannot capture the essential properties of having more robust timetables. Therefore we proposed measuring Channel Width, Channel Width Forward, Channel Width Behind and Track Switching.Furthermore, the experimental analysis of the applied MILP model shows that some cases are computationally hard to solve and there is a need to decrease the computation time. Hence several valid inequalities are developed and their effects on the computation time are analyzed.This thesis contains three papers which are appended. The results of this thesis are of special interests for railway traffic planners and it would support their working process. However, railway traffic operators and passengers also benefit from this study.
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