A short-turning policy for the management of demand disruptions in rapid transit systems

Rapid transit systems timetables are commonly designed to accommodate passenger demand in sections with the highest passenger load. However, disruptions frequently arise due to an increase in the demand, infrastructure incidences or as a consequence of fleet size reductions. All these circumstances give rise to unsupplied demand at certain stations, which generates passenger overloads in the available vehicles. The design of strategies that guarantee reasonable user waiting time with small increases of operation costs is now an important research topic. This paper proposes a tactical approach to determine optimal policies for dealing with such situations. Concretely, a short-turning strategy is analysed, where some vehicles perform short cycles in order to increase the frequency among certain stations of the lines and to equilibrate the train occupancy level. Turn-back points should be located and service offset should be determined with the objective of diminishing the passenger waiting time while preserving certain level of quality of service. Computational results and analysis for a real case study are provided.

[1]  Luis Cadarso,et al.  Integration of timetable planning and rolling stock in rapid transit networks , 2012, Ann. Oper. Res..

[2]  Avishai Ceder,et al.  Optimal coordination of public transit vehicles using operational tactics examined by simulation , 2008 .

[3]  Ming Zhong,et al.  Bicriteria train scheduling for high-speed passenger railroad planning applications , 2005, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[4]  Juan A. Mesa,et al.  Locating optimal timetables and vehicle schedules in a transit line , 2014, Ann. Oper. Res..

[5]  Alejandro Tirachini,et al.  Integrating short turning and deadheading in the optimization of transit services , 2011 .

[6]  Rolf H. Möhring,et al.  A Case Study in Periodic Timetabling , 2002, ATMOS.

[7]  David Canca,et al.  Optimal Train Reallocation Strategies under Service Disruptions , 2012 .

[8]  Mark Wardman,et al.  Consumer benefits and demand impacts of regular train timetables , 2004 .

[9]  José David Canca Ortiz,et al.  Operación mixta de una línea de ferrocarril: análisis de capacidad y gestión de material rodante , 2009 .

[10]  Christian Liebchen,et al.  Symmetry for Periodic Railway Timetables , 2004, ATMOS.

[11]  Paolo Toth,et al.  Non-cyclic train timetabling and comparability graphs , 2010, Oper. Res. Lett..

[12]  Qing Liu,et al.  Real-Time Optimization Model for Dynamic Scheduling of Transit Operations , 2003 .

[13]  Nigel H. M. Wilson,et al.  Modeling real-time control strategies in public transit operations , 1999 .

[14]  Guy Desaulniers,et al.  Chapter 2 Public Transit , 2007, Transportation.

[15]  Avishai Ceder,et al.  OPTIMAL DESIGN OF TRANSIT SHORT-TURN TRIPS , 1989 .

[16]  Jin-Kao Hao,et al.  Transit network design and scheduling: A global review , 2008 .

[17]  Leo G. Kroon,et al.  Cyclic Railway Timetabling: A Stochastic Optimization Approach , 2004, ATMOS.

[18]  Thomas L. Magnanti,et al.  Network Design and Transportation Planning: Models and Algorithms , 1984, Transp. Sci..

[19]  Matteo Fischetti,et al.  Fast Approaches to Improve the Robustness of a Railway Timetable , 2009, Transp. Sci..

[20]  Alejandro Tirachini,et al.  Optimal design and benefits of a short turning strategy for a bus corridor , 2011 .

[21]  Erhan Kozan,et al.  Techniques for inserting additional trains into existing timetables , 2009 .

[22]  David Canca,et al.  Operación mixta de una línea de ferrocarril. Análisis de capacidad y gestión de material rodante , 2009, Dirección y Organización.

[23]  Gordon T. Coor.  Analysis of the short-turning strategy on high-frequency transit lines , 1997 .

[24]  Madhav V. Marathe,et al.  Routing in Very Large Multi-Modal Time Dependent Networks: Theory and Practice (Invited Talk) , 2002, ATMOS.

[25]  David Canca,et al.  Design and analysis of demand-adapted railway timetables , 2013 .

[26]  Victor Andres Vera Valdes,et al.  Integrating Crew Scheduling and Rostering Problems , 2010 .

[27]  Colorado Colorado,et al.  AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS , 2010 .

[28]  Huimin Niu,et al.  Modeling Transit Scheduling Problem with Short-Turn Strategy For A Congested Public Bus Line , 2009 .

[29]  Christian Liebchen,et al.  Integral cycle bases for cyclic timetabling , 2009, Discret. Optim..

[30]  Paolo Toth,et al.  Scheduling extra freight trains on railway networks , 2010 .

[31]  Dario Pacciarelli,et al.  Bi-objective conflict detection and resolution in railway traffic management , 2012 .

[32]  T.A.S. Vijayaraghavan,et al.  FLEET ASSIGNMENT STRATEGIES IN URBAN TRANSPORTATION USING EXPRESS AND PARTIAL SERVICES , 1995 .

[33]  Cameron G. Walker,et al.  Simultaneous disruption recovery of a train timetable and crew roster in real time , 2005, Comput. Oper. Res..

[34]  Sebastian Stiller,et al.  Delay resistant timetabling , 2009, Public Transp..

[35]  Nigel H. M. Wilson,et al.  THE REAL-TIME DEADHEADING PROBLEM IN TRANSIT OPERATIONS CONTROL , 1998 .

[36]  James H. Bookbinder,et al.  The planning of headways in urban public transit , 1995, Ann. Oper. Res..

[37]  Nigel H. M. Wilson,et al.  IMPROVING SERVICE ON THE MBTA GREEN LINE THROUGH BETTER OPERATIONS CONTROL , 1992 .

[38]  Michael R. Bussieck,et al.  Optimal Lines in Public Rail Transport , 1998 .

[39]  Miguel A. Salido,et al.  An Efficient Method to Schedule New Trains on a Heavily Loaded Railway Network , 2004, IBERAMIA.

[40]  Rolf H. Möhring,et al.  Robust and Online Large-Scale Optimization: Models and Techniques for Transportation Systems , 2009, Robust and Online Large-Scale Optimization.

[41]  Anita Schöbel,et al.  Integrating line planning, timetabling, and vehicle scheduling: a customer-oriented heuristic , 2009, Public Transp..

[42]  Nigel H. M. Wilson,et al.  Bus network design , 1986 .

[43]  T. Westerlund,et al.  Solving Pseudo-Convex Mixed Integer Optimization Problems by Cutting Plane Techniques , 2002 .

[44]  Dario Pacciarelli,et al.  Discrete Optimization A branch and bound algorithm for scheduling trains in a railway network , 2007 .

[45]  Marc Nunkesser,et al.  Scheduling Additional Trains on Dense Corridors , 2009, SEA.

[46]  Rolf H. Möhring,et al.  The modeling power of the periodic event scheduling problem: railway timetables-and beyond , 2004 .

[47]  Dennis Huisman,et al.  Adjusting a railway timetable in case of partial or complete blockades , 2012, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[48]  Xiaobo Liu,et al.  Dynamic Prediction Method with Schedule Recovery Impact for Bus Arrival Time , 2005 .

[49]  Roberto Cordone,et al.  The demand-dependent optimization of regular train timetables , 2004, Electron. Notes Discret. Math..

[50]  Carlo Mannino,et al.  Optimal Real-Time Traffic Control in Metro Stations , 2009, Oper. Res..

[51]  Michael R. Bussieck,et al.  Discrete optimization in public rail transport , 1997, Math. Program..

[52]  Paolo Delle Site,et al.  Service optimization for bus corridors with short-turn strategies and variable vehicle size , 1998 .

[53]  Walter Ukovich,et al.  A Mathematical Model for Periodic Scheduling Problems , 1989, SIAM J. Discret. Math..

[54]  Peter G Furth.  SHORT TURNING ON TRANSIT ROUTES , 1987 .

[55]  Juan A. Mesa,et al.  Effective Allocation of Fleet Frequencies by Reducing Intermediate Stops and Short Turning in Transit Systems , 2009, Robust and Online Large-Scale Optimization.

[56]  Sophie Boyd.  Public transport-1 , 2013 .