Reliability Optimization of a Railway Network

• Main Authors: Xuelei Meng, Yahui Wang, Limin Jia, Lei Li
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-11-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: railway network; reliability; optimization; investment limit; probability theory
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/23/9805

With the increase of the railway operating mileage, the railway network is becoming more and more complicated. We expect to build more railway lines to offer the possibility to offer more high quality service for the passengers, while the investment is often limited. Therefore, it is very important to decide the pairs of cities to add new railway lines under the condition of limited construction investment in order to optimize the railway line network to maximize the reliability of the railway network to deal with the railway passenger transport task under emergency conditions. In this paper, we firstly define the reliability of the railway networks based on probability theory by analyzing three minor cases. Then we construct a reliability optimization model for the railway network to solve the problem, expecting to enhance the railway network with the limited investment. The goal is to make an optimal decision when choosing where to add new railway lines to maximize the reliability of the whole railway network, taking the construction investment as the main constraint, which is turned to the building mileage limit. A computing case is presented based on the railway network of Shandong Province, China. The computing results prove the effectiveness of the model and the efficiency of the algorithm. The approach presented in this paper can provide a reference for the railway investors and builders to make an optimal decision.