Flexible rolling stock composition strategy in urban rail transit lines: The influences of various train units and station capacities

Authors

Pengling Wang
Xiaofang Xiao
Nils Nießen

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

2024

Subject Area

place - asia, place - urban, mode - rail, mode - subway/metro, infrastructure - rolling stock, infrastructure - station, ridership - demand, economics - operating costs, operations - capacity, operations - scheduling, planning - methods

Keywords

Urban, rail, rolling stock

Abstract

This work studies the flexible rolling stock strategy in urban rail transit lines, by which various train units can be coupled to or uncoupled from the trains in certain stations according to the time-varying passenger demand. Due to the use of various train units, coupling and uncoupling train units must respect specific rules related to the shunting rules in adaptation stations, it is important to take into account the order of the train units in the trains. A mixed-integer linear programming model is proposed to optimize the rolling stock compositions together with the train timetable. Additionally, the model includes constraints for passenger assignment to evaluate the number of passengers in train services or stranded at stations. The model aims at reducing the number of stranded passengers, the number of rolling stocks, and the operational costs. To efficiently solve the integrated optimization problem, this study proposes an approximation approach and a two-stage heuristic algorithm. The approximation approach relaxes some calculations and constraints in an approximate manner in order to improve the computational speed. The two-stage heuristic approach divides the integrated optimization problem into two subproblems and solves the two subproblems with a heuristic searching method. The proposed optimization method is examined using the historical operation data of Shanghai Metro Line 16. The results suggest that the proposed approach can well satisfy the passenger travel demand and decrease operational costs. In addition, the influences of train unit types, headway control strategy, and station capacities are studied. The findings of the case studies can provide insights into timetable and rolling stock schedule planners.

Rights

Permission to publish the abstract has been given by Elsevier, copyright remains with them.

Comments

Transportation Research Part C Home Page:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/0968090X

Recommended Citation

Wang, P., Xiao, X., & Nießen, N. (2024). Flexible rolling stock composition strategy in urban rail transit lines: The influences of various train units and station capacities. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, 162, 104609.