Simulation of a railed automated highway

This paper is concerned with a useful application of simulation to aid the systems design of a high speed intercity ground transportation system. The approach simulated utilizes a computer controlled constant speed main-line railed vehicle carrying occupied vehicles, freight, and passenger modules. Shuttle trains mate with the main-line trains at transfer points, and simultaneously transfer vehicles on and off the main-line train at full speed. The simulation results showed the minimum headways possible for the various shuttle configurations under study, the vehicle handling capacity for the different configurations, and vehicle speed through the system. GPSS/360-NORDEN was used with its ability to use the 2250 display unit. This facilitated the development of systems studies.