Efficient Stop Planning Model for High-Speed Rail Systems

Finding an efficient way to design appropriate stopping patterns is a challenge for the Taiwan High Speed Rail (THSR). The majority of previous studies on stop planning adopted meta-heuristics or decomposition methods to tackle this complex problem. Although these solution techniques do improve the solution efficiency, none of them could guarantee the optimality of the solution. Thus, in this study, the authors proposed a novel optimization framework with an innovative network structure to address the complex stop planning problems in HSR systems. Given its special network structure and techniques, the binary integer programming (BIP) model can simultaneously form and determine the optimal stopping patterns according to passenger demand. Using this stop planning model will help high speed rail systems design optimal stopping patterns corresponding to passenger demand.