Simultaneous Optimization of Train Timetabling and Platforming Problems for High-Speed Multiline Railway Network

• Main Authors: Qin Zhang, Xiaoning Zhu, Li Wang, Shuai Wang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hindawi-Wiley 2021-01-01
• Series: Journal of Advanced Transportation
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2021/6679008

The optimization problems of train timetabling and platforming are two crucial problems in high-speed railway operation; these problems are typically considered sequentially and independently. With the construction of high-speed railways, an increasing number of interactions between trains on multiple lines have led to resource assignment difficulties at hub stations. To coordinate station resources for multiline train timetables, this study fully considered the resources of track segments, station throat areas, and platforms to design a three-part space-time (TPST) framework from a mesoscopic perspective to generate a train timetable and station track assignment simultaneously. A 0-1 integer programming model is proposed, whose objective is to minimize the total weighted train running costs. The construction of a set of incompatible vertexes and links facilitates the expression of difficult constraints. Finally, example results verify the validity and practicability of our proposed method, which can generate conflict-free train timetables with a station track allocation plan for multiple railway lines at the same time.