Railway operation analysis

Effective Railway Planning through Operations Research models

ABSTRACT
Operations Research is the application of scientific methods to problems arising from operations involving
integrated systems of people, machines and materials. Researchers and practitioners alike have applied many
techniques in Transportation sector, for both tactical as well as operational issues. There is still tremendous
scope for application of OR techniques to optimize the Railway Operations. In this paper we give an overview
of state of the art Operations Research models and techniques used in passenger railway transportation.
Design and construction of railway lines and networks Experience shows that traffic often develops differently
than expected means that railway infrastructure must be designed to be flexible, i. e. To achieve such
flexibility, a deep knowledge of infrastructure, timetable and perturbation properties, as well as inter
correlations between these theses shows the advantages of simple models for analysis of railway operation.
It presents two tools for infrastructure and timetable planning. Infrastructure can be analyzed through fictive
line designs, how the timetable can be treated as a variable and how delays can be used as performance
measures. Also gives examples of analyses of complex traffic situations through simulation operation and thus
further increase the competitiveness of railways. Infrastructure configuration, schedule design and delays play
an important role in level crossing (touching the railway).
The thesis proposes three simple measures of timetable flexibility, all based on assigned crossing time
requirements. Evaluate how infrastructure configuration, vehicle properties, punctuality etc. affect as an
example of its application.
Importance of run time extensions, i. e. primary delays assigned to the trains within The calibrated model was
used for multifactor analysis through experiments where infrastructure, timetable and perturbation factors were
varied according to an experimental design and evaluated through response surface methods. Timetable factors,
such as frequency of high-speed services and freight train speed, turned out to be of great importance for the
infrastructure factor, distance between overtaking timetable factors.
 INTRODUCTION
Railway operation is a wide research area. Some important fields are capacity analysis, scheduling,
rescheduling, timetable stability analysis, traffic control, simulation and energy consumption. This thesis
focuses on capacity and quality. Quality is here defined as deviation from the scheduled timetable, i.e. delays.
Transportation is growing continuously. Road site visitors is nowadays the principal shape of However, an
aggregate of investments in railway infrastructure, new, speedy and snug rail vehicles, expanded frequency of
service, deregulation of rail freight site visitors, and occasional music expenses has brought about an intensive
enlargement of rail Administration of the Swedish railway infrastructure become organizationally separated
from site visitors operation in 1988 and given that then call for passenger and freight on present strains has
additionally contributed to expanded site visitors and the deregulation of rail freight site visitors, blended with
low music expenses, has brought about a superb enlargement additionally in freight site visitors. Regional rail
site visitors have additionally evolved in numerous regions in Sweden, e. g. in Mälardalen, the Öresund area
and Bergslagen. Overall, the growth in site visitors and the better pace variations have resulted in investments,
however additionally for extra correct ability analyses. Competitiveness and so rail offerings want to be speedy,
common, comfortable, and dependable
• Infrastructure layout and operational reliability.
• Vehicle layout and operational reliability.
Important to apprehend the relationships among infrastructure, vehicles, timetable relationships on unmarried
and double-music strains respectively. Regarding pace, frequency and reliability of offerings, unmarried-music
strains show off special on unmarried-music strains, with crossings additionally mean decreased reliability
given that delays propagate among crossing frequency of offerings on unmarried-music strains. Double-music
strains being operated with combined site visitors, i. e. each speedy and sluggish trains, longer walking times
(scheduled delays) for the slower trains and reduced reliability During the ultimate many years principal
investments had been made with inside the Swedish railway transportation machine so as to growth its
competitiveness.

COMPARISON BETWEEN ISSUES AND OR TECHNIQUES OF DIFFERENT COUNTRIES:

Indian Railways is the largest railroad under a single management with revenues upwards of 12 billion USD.
A few of the areas Indian railways which have a potential for optimization are capacity in railway sections,
robust capacity, strategic decisions, timetabling, freight supply limits etc. The most important issues for
Indian Railways though are locomotive assignment problems, optimal design of time tables and dynamic
pricing of services.
Linear programming model is a planning technique that uses mathematical model in maximizing or
minimizing appropriate measure to optimize the value of some objective after identifying some constraints. In
most emerging countries, the urban rail transit transportation system consists of the carrying tool,
infrastructure and operation management. While carrying tool refers to the equipment required by railway
officials, consisting of safety monitoring, maintenance & protection, infrastructure basically refers to the
public works engineering system, tractive power supply system, and communication signal system.
Operation management refers to the operation organization and the service management system organizing
various transportation resources scientifically and reasonably, and provides high quality transportation
services for passengers and owners of cargo based on the requirements on the transport of travelers and goods.
Constraints for the above can be the limitation of the railway network, poor condition of the railway
infrastructure and limited volume of traffic.
Using a mathematical model-

Decision Variables:
Let
x1 represent the carrying tool
x2 represent the infrastructure
x3 represent the Operation management

a).
Carrying Tool (x1):
x11 = safety monitoring
x12 = facilities of maintenance and protection

b).
Infrastructure (x2):

Let
x21 = Public works engineering system
x22 = tractive power supply system
x23 = communication signal system

c).
Operation Management (x3):

Let x31 = Passenger flow demand forecasting

From the data gathered, the percentage of success (contribution) of each of the decision variables is given.
Therefore, the contributions c1j as regards the carrying tool are as follows:
 ,

The contributions c21 as regards the infrastructure are as follows:

, ,
The contributions c31 as regards the operation management are as follows:

, , , , , , ,
The performances of the decision variables towards optimization of urban rail transportation in emerging
countries, therefore, are respectively:

....... (1)

........ (2)

.... (3)

A. Objective

The objective is to maximize total performances of the decision variables. That

........ (4)

……. (5)

A. Resource Utilization

Let aij be the amount of resource j used to achieve one unit of decision variable xi. From the data gathered
and with some simulations, we have the following:
 a11 = unit cost of achieving safety monitoring
a12 = unit cost for acquiring facility of maintenance and production
a22 = unit cost for tractive power supply system
a23 = unit cost of installing communication signal system
a31 = unit cost to achieve passenger flow demand forecast
a32 = unit cost to carry out demand rules analysis
a33 = unit cost to achieve the transport path
a34 = unit cost of formulating transport organization model
a35 = unit cost of building train operations plan
a36 = unit cost of making train graph available
a37 = unit cost of motor train unit application
a38 = unit cost of proper train and station organization

The amount of available resources used to achieve a unit of the decision variables are represented as
Follows:

B. Constraints

Where T is the total amount available for rail transport in sub-Sahara African countries, which is put at $20
million. In a year, on the average, for the purpose of this paper.

C. The Model

Maximize:
 Subject to:

D. Model Solution

The model is first of all written in its standard form before applying simplex method to solve it.

Standardized Model

Maximize

Subject to:

From the results, we see that safety monitoring, tractive power supply and Transportation organization model
are significant for the efficient working of railways in emerging countries. In any of the emerging countries,
these three factors, classified under carrying tools, Infrastructure and operational management respectfully,
are very critical in optimizing the urban rail transport in emerging countries.
 CONCLUSION

From this summary report we can see how different components and systems of a rail transport can be made
efficient through operations research. We also see variations in OR techniques used in different countries
depending on their requirements, demands and availability of resources. All in all, there still persist issues in
the railway industry in both developed and developing countries. While some manage to effectively
implement solutions to further modernize their systems, many are unable to do so due to multiple
constraints. In the future, we hope to see large scale usage of Operations Research for smoother functioning
of the railway department and better tools and techniques to solve the difficulties faced today and settle the
debates on the existing optimization methods.
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