Towards concurrent planning of railway maintenance and train services

Towards concurrent planning of railway maintenance and train services PDF Author: Tomas Lidén
Publisher: Linköping University Electronic Press
ISBN: 9176857743
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 67

Get Book Here

Book Description
Efficiency in the public and freight transportation systems is of crucial importance for a society. Railways can offer high capacity and relatively low environmental impact, but require that several technical systems are tuned and operate well. Specifically there is a very tight interdependency between infrastructure and trains, which distinguishes railways from other transportation modes. Thus maintenance of all the subsystems is needed. Railways do also have some specific and complicating properties that influence maintenance and operations: Most activities need exclusive access to the infrastructure and - due to the geographic layout, safety requirements and partitioning of the subsystems - large portions of the network will be affected by each activity. Furthermore, several organisational units and resources are involved, ranging from governments and regulatory bodies, over operators and contractors to suppliers, technical experts and work forces. Thus railway maintenance is complicated to organize and consumes large budgets. This thesis treats the planning and scheduling problems that concern railway infrastructure maintenance and the coordination with train traffic. Mathematical methods and optimization are studied and used, with the aim of advancing the knowledge about models for solving such problems. The thesis contains three papers and presents: (1) A survey regarding railway maintenance activities, the major planning problems and the conducted research so far; (2) A model for quantitative comparison and assessment of competing capacity requests from train operations and maintenance; (3) An optimization model for integrated scheduling of both maintenance windows and train services. The work can be helpful for practitioners as well as researchers who want to take further steps in this interesting and challenging area. Based on the results that have been obtained, future research directions are presented that may lead towards practical use of concurrent planning of railway maintenance and train services.

Towards concurrent planning of railway maintenance and train services

Towards concurrent planning of railway maintenance and train services PDF Author: Tomas Lidén
Publisher: Linköping University Electronic Press
ISBN: 9176857743
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 67

Get Book Here

Book Description
Efficiency in the public and freight transportation systems is of crucial importance for a society. Railways can offer high capacity and relatively low environmental impact, but require that several technical systems are tuned and operate well. Specifically there is a very tight interdependency between infrastructure and trains, which distinguishes railways from other transportation modes. Thus maintenance of all the subsystems is needed. Railways do also have some specific and complicating properties that influence maintenance and operations: Most activities need exclusive access to the infrastructure and - due to the geographic layout, safety requirements and partitioning of the subsystems - large portions of the network will be affected by each activity. Furthermore, several organisational units and resources are involved, ranging from governments and regulatory bodies, over operators and contractors to suppliers, technical experts and work forces. Thus railway maintenance is complicated to organize and consumes large budgets. This thesis treats the planning and scheduling problems that concern railway infrastructure maintenance and the coordination with train traffic. Mathematical methods and optimization are studied and used, with the aim of advancing the knowledge about models for solving such problems. The thesis contains three papers and presents: (1) A survey regarding railway maintenance activities, the major planning problems and the conducted research so far; (2) A model for quantitative comparison and assessment of competing capacity requests from train operations and maintenance; (3) An optimization model for integrated scheduling of both maintenance windows and train services. The work can be helpful for practitioners as well as researchers who want to take further steps in this interesting and challenging area. Based on the results that have been obtained, future research directions are presented that may lead towards practical use of concurrent planning of railway maintenance and train services.

Concurrent planning of railway maintenance windows and train services

Concurrent planning of railway maintenance windows and train services PDF Author: Tomas Lidén
Publisher: Linköping University Electronic Press
ISBN: 9176852016
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 44

Get Book Here

Book Description
Efficiency in public and freight transportation systems is of great importance for a society. Railways can other high capacity and relatively low environmental impact, but require that several technical systems are tuned and operate well. Specifically there is a tight interdependency between infrastructure and trains. The consequences are that all subsystems must be maintained and that the coordination of infrastructure activities and train operations is essential. Railway infrastructure maintenance and train services should ideally be planned together, but practice and research about railway scheduling has historically focused mainly on train operations and timetabling while maintenance planning has received less attention | and little research have considered the joint scheduling of both types of activities. Instead the traditional approach has been a sequential and iterative planning procedure, where train timetabling often has precedence over infrastructure maintenance. This thesis studies how maintenance windows, which are regular time windows reserved for maintenance work, can be dimensioned and jointly scheduled with train services in a balanced and efficient way for both maintenance contractors and train operators. Mathematical methods are used, with the aim of advancing the knowledge about quantitative methods for solving such coordination problems. The thesis contributes with new optimization models that jointly schedule maintenance windows and train services, investigates the solving efficiency of these models, and studies crucial extensions of the planning problem | primarily for the consideration of maintenance resources. Furthermore, the models are applied to, verified and validated on a demanding real-life problem instance. The main results are that integrated and optimal scheduling of maintenance windows and train services is viable for problems of practical size and importance, and that substantial maintenance cost savings can be achieved with such an integrated approach as compared to a traditional sequential planning process. The thesis consists of an introduction and overview of the research, followed by six papers which present: (1) A cost benefit model for assessment of competing capacity requests at a single location; (2) An optimization model for integrated scheduling of both maintenance windows and train services; (3) Mathematical reformulations that strengthen the optimization model; (4) Extensions for handling resource considerations and cyclic schedules; (5) A case study for a major single track line in Sweden; and (6) A mathematical study of length-restricted sequences under cyclic conditions.

Optimization-Based Methods for Revising Train Timetables with Focus on Robustness

Optimization-Based Methods for Revising Train Timetables with Focus on Robustness PDF Author: Fahimeh Khoshniyat
Publisher: Linköping University Electronic Press
ISBN: 9176856313
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 60

Get Book Here

Book Description
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.

Methods for Capacity Allocation in Deregulated Railway Markets

Methods for Capacity Allocation in Deregulated Railway Markets PDF Author: Abderrahman Ait Ali
Publisher: Linköping University Electronic Press
ISBN: 9179297714
Category : Electronic books
Languages : en
Pages : 51

Get Book Here

Book Description
Faced with increasing challenges, railways around Europe have recently undergone major reforms aiming to improve the efficiency and competitiveness of the railway sector. New market structures such as vertical separation, deregulation and open access can allow for reduced public expenditures, increased market competition, and more efficient railway systems. However, these structures have introduced new challenges for managing infrastructure and operations. Railway capacity allocation, previously internally performed within monopolistic national companies, are now conferred to an infrastructure manager. The manager is responsible for transparent and efficient allocation of available capacity to the different (often competing) licensed railway undertakings. This thesis aims at developing a number of methods that can help allocate capacity in a deregulated (vertically separated) railway market. It focuses on efficiency in terms of social welfare, and transparency in terms of clarity and fairness. The work is concerned with successive allocation of capacity for publicly controlled and commercial traffic within a segmented railway market. The contributions include cost benefit analysis methods that allow public transport authorities to assess the social welfare of their traffic, and create efficient schedules. The thesis also describes a market-based transparent capacity allocation where infrastructure managers price commercial train paths to solve capacity conflicts with publicly controlled traffic. Additionally, solution methods are developed to help estimate passenger demand, which is a necessary input both for resolving conflicts, and for creating efficient timetables. Future capacity allocation in deregulated markets may include solution methods from this thesis. However, further experimentations are still required to address concerns such as data, legislation and acceptability. Moreover, future works can include prototyping and pilot projects on the proposed solutions, and investigating legal and digitalisation strategies to facilitate the implementation of such solutions. Med ökande utmaningar har järnvägar runt om i Europa genomgått stora reformer som syftar till att förbättra järnvägssektorns effektivitet och konkurrenskraft. Nya marknadsstrukturer såsom vertikal separering, avreglering och öppet tillträde för flera operatörer kan möjliggöra minskade offentliga kostnader, ökad marknadskonkurrens och effektivare järnvägssystem. Denna omreglering av järnvägsmarknaderna har dock skapat nya utmaningar för hanteringen av järnvägsinfrastruktur och drift. Tilldelning av järnvägskapacitet, vilket tidigare sköttes inom nationella monopolföretag, måste nu göras av en infrastrukturförvaltare (infrastructure manager). Förvaltarens kapacitetstilldelning till olika (ofta konkurrerande) licensierade järnvägsföretag (railway undertakings) måste samtidigt vara transparent, rättvis och leda till ett effektivt kapacitetsutnyttjande. I denna avhandling utvecklas metoder som kan användas av en infrastrukturförvaltare för att tilldela kapacitet i en avreglerad järnvägsmarknad. Den fokuserar på samhällsekonomiskt effektiva utfall men även transparens, tydlighet och rättvisa. Avhandlingens bidrag omfattar samhällsekonomiska analysmetoder som gör det möjligt för regionala kollektivtrafikmyndigheter att bedöma den samhällsekonomiska effektiviteten för deras trafikering och skapa ett effektivt utbud. Med dessa metoder som utgångspunkt beskrivs en marknadsbaserad och transparent tilldelningsprocess för kapacitet där infrastrukturförvaltare prissätter kommersiella tåglägen för att lösa kapacitetskonflikter med offentligt kontrollerad trafik. Dessutom utvecklas optimeringsmetoder för att estimera passagerarefterfrågan och för att skapa effektiva tågtidtabeller. Framtida kapacitetstilldelning på avreglerade marknader kan inkludera lösningsmetoder från denna avhandling. Ytterligare experiment krävs dock fortfarande för att hantera problem såsom data, lagstiftning och godtagbarhet. Dessutom kan framtida arbete omfatta prototyper och pilotprojekt av de föreslagna lösningarna och undersöka lagliga och digitaliseringsstrategier för att underlätta implementeringen av sådana lösningar.

Passenger Train Service Legislation

Passenger Train Service Legislation PDF Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce. Subcommittee on Surface Transportation
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Railroads
Languages : en
Pages : 332

Get Book Here

Book Description
Committee Serial No. 91-37. Considers nine bills to revitalize rail passenger service in the U.S.

Amtrak Authorization

Amtrak Authorization PDF Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce. Subcommittee on Transportation and Commerce
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Railroads
Languages : en
Pages : 228

Get Book Here

Book Description


Congressional Record

Congressional Record PDF Author: United States. Congress
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 1404

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published daily when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record began publication in 1873. Debates for sessions prior to 1873 are recorded in The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States (1789-1824), the Register of Debates in Congress (1824-1837), and the Congressional Globe (1833-1873)

How Fair are the Fares?

How Fair are the Fares? PDF Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Transport Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 0215028864
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 188

Get Book Here

Book Description
How fair are the Fares? : Train fares and ticketing, sixth report of session 2005-06, Vol. 2: Oral and written Evidence

The Gravy Train - An Inside Look at the Long Island Rail Road

The Gravy Train - An Inside Look at the Long Island Rail Road PDF Author: Dan Ruppert
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
ISBN: 1412251729
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 128

Get Book Here

Book Description
Growing up in the suburbs of New York City on Long Island, I took a keen interest in all forms of transportation, especially trains. Afer graduating college, I worked as an industrial engineer for private sector corporations progressing to a middle management position within a Fortune 25 Company. In 1983 I accepted a job opportunity with the Long Island Rail Road as an industrial engineer. The LIRR is a government-subsidized agency that is part of a larger regional organization called the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The LIRR had embarked on a very ambitious improvement program to upgrade their physical plants. This plan included the construction of a new railcar maintenance facility. The new facility was to replace their one hundred year old maintenance shops. I was hired to develop facility layouts for the most advanced rail car maintenance facility in the country. Friends and professional colleagues advised me to decline the job offer. However, I was a railroad buff and the opportunity to work for a railroad overshadowed any tredpidations. For decades, the LIRR had bore the brunt of adverse publicity. I would often consider much of the critisism as being too harsh and misguided. Not long after commencing employment, my perspective of the LIRR would be completely transformed. The inefficient and workplace abuses I witnessed first hand could only flourish in publicly subsidized environment. My job required me to observe and analyze the maintenance and repair operations performed on commuter railcars. My next step was identifying more efficient methods. I would then implement these improvements into the design of the new railcar maintenance facilities. I was met with a wall of resistence and non-cooperation from the unionized workforce. The LIRR had languished in decades of inefficient work habits supplemented with managerial coplacency and rampant nepotism. I would operate in a very hostile environment that had no incentive to embrace improvements. It would be in the better interests of the unions to maintain low productivity and therefore justify the gross overstaffing that existed for decades. Upon completion of developing the facility layouts, the next phase of my responsibilities involved coordination with design consultants hired by the LIRR. The consultants were responsible for the architectural and structural designs of the new maintenance facility. The consultans typically were selected based on political connections and not their level of expertise. The design phase was muddled with incompetence and waste. Inept project management would add tens of millions of dollars and lengthly delays to the construction phase of the project. Upon completion of construction, a new regime intent on maintaining the status quo within the LIRR assues control of the new maintenance facility. The new regime is not committed to capitalizing on the labor efficiencies offered by the new facility. Key positions are then filled with managers' intent in preserving the traditional inefficient ways of the LIRR. My story concludes with the agendas of the new regime and conflicts with those who were trying to transform the LIRR into a socially responsible institution. My trials and tribulations along with personal victories and setbacks are all the basis of my book.

Sustainable Rail Transport 4

Sustainable Rail Transport 4 PDF Author: Marin Marinov
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030820955
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 372

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book offers a timely collection of articles on innovative research and developments in the vast field of rail transport, including rail operations, management, economics, vehicles interior design and sustainable infrastructure. It addresses academics and professionals specializing in railway transport analysis, innovation, systems design and new technology. Continuing on the tradition of the previous volumes, the book reports on innovative solutions for energy saving, noise reduction and baggage handling. It elaborates on the implementation of digital technologies and discusses sustainable rail operations along transport corridors. The concept of hyperloop is also discussed as a possible transport mode of the future. All the contributions were selected through an internal competition and a double-blinded peer review process organized by the RailUniNet members