Conference article

Train timetabling plays an important part in train management, not only for passengers, but also for train operators. In a highly dynamic transportation market, train timetabling is an essential bridge connecting the service supplier with transportation demand. However, in present operations, train scheduling without considering passenger demand can reduce competitive advantages of railway in the multimodal transportation market and will further lead to passenger dissatisfaction. Therefore, it’s important to schedule trains responding to passenger demand in the train planning process. In this paper, we focus on the problem of train timetabling with passenger demand, specifically deciding train stop plan based on different origin-destination passenger demand pairs. Taking the stop indicators as important decision variables, a mixed integer linear programming model is proposed to address this train timetabling and stopping plan integration issue, with minimizing total train travel time and maximizing the number of transported passengers. The weighted-sum method is used to find the Pareto optimal solutions for the proposed bi-objective mathematical model. A set of numerical tests is presented based on Beijing-Jinan high-speed railway line (part of Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway line) by Cplex optimization solver to validate the model.

Train timetabling, Stop planning, Passenger demand, Mixed integer programming, Pareto optimization