Calculation and Evaluation of Carrying Capacities at High-speed Railway Stations

Because of differences in station operations and transportation organizations,traditional methods are no longer available to calculate and evaluate carrying capacities at high-speed railway stations properly.The UIC capacity leaflet suggests two ways including compression and enrichment to evaluate line capacities,however,does not give exact definitions of so-called theoretical,practical and available capacities,and also does not provide exact methods to evaluate capacity consumptions at stations.This article classifies carrying capacities at stations into several levels at first and analyses their main facets inside and outside stations.Then calculation methods are suggested for carrying capacities of different levels,including the theoretical utility level method and simulation method.The compression and enrichment methods specified in the UIC capacity leaflet are also used to evaluate capacity consumptions and to calculate usable capacities at stations in a similar way to lines.A case study using the Station Optimization and Simulation system(Station OS) and the relationships between different capacities are given,which shows that simulation is a feasible and powerful way while the theoretical utility level method and compression method are just available under certain conditions.