<p>Railway transportation is showing a substantial increase. Investments in new infrastructure, new fast and comfortable vehicles, and high frequency of service are important factors behind the increase.</p><p>Infrastructure configuration and timetable construction play important roles in the competitiveness of railway transportation. This is especially true on single-track lines where the travel times and other timetable related parameters are severely restricted by crossings (train meetings). The crossings also make the lines’ operation more sensitive to disturbances.</p><p>Since the major part of the Swedish railway network is single-track it is of great interest to examine the relationships between operation properties, such as travel times and reliability, and infrastructure configuration on single-track lines. The crossings are the core feature of single-track operation and this thesis focuses on the crossing time, i.e. the time loss that occurs in crossing situations.</p><p>A simplified analytical model, SAMFOST, has been developed to calculate the crossing time as a function of infrastructure configuration, vehicle properties, timetable and delays for two crossing trains. The effect of possible surrounding trains is not taken into account and all kinds of congestion effects are thus excluded from evaluation. SAMFOST has been successfully validated against the simulation tool RailSys, which shows that this type of simplified model is accurate in non-congested situations.</p><p>A great advantage of disregarding congested situations is that analysis is independent of timetable assumptions. The model also explicitly shows the effect of punctuality, which is of particular importance on single-track lines where the interdependencies between trains are strengthened by the crossings.</p><p>For the same reason, the timetable is severely constrained. Nonetheless, there is often a need for changes of the timetable (crossing pattern). The thesis proposes three simple measures of timetable flexibility, all based on assigned crossing time requirements. Together, these measures can be used to evaluate how infrastructure configuration, vehicle properties, punctuality etc affect possibilities to alter the timetable.</p><p>As an example of its application, SAMFOST has been used to evaluate the effect of shorter inter-station distance, partial double-track and combined crossing and passenger stop. These measures affect the operational properties quite differently.</p><p>More crossing stations result in a minor decrease in travel time (lower mean crossing time) but significantly higher reliability (lower crossing time variance). These effects are independent of punctuality, which is a valuable property.</p><p>A partial double-track results in shorter travel times and in some cases also higher reliability. Both effects are strongly dependent on punctuality and high punctuality is needed to achieve high effects.</p><p>A combined crossing and passenger stop results in a situation similar to that of a partial double-track. In this case it is important to point out that the assignment of time supplements in the timetable should be directly correlated to punctuality in order to achieve good operation.</p>

Railway transportation is showing a substantial increase. Investments in new infrastructure, new fast and comfortable vehicles, and high frequency of service are important factors behind the increase. Infrastructure configuration and timetable construction play important roles in the competitiveness of railway transportation. This is especially true on single-track lines where the travel times and other timetable related parameters are severely restricted by crossings (train meetings). The crossings also make the lines’ operation more sensitive to disturbances. Since the major part of the Swedish railway network is single-track it is of great interest to examine the relationships between operation properties, such as travel times and reliability, and infrastructure configuration on single-track lines. The crossings are the core feature of single-track operation and this thesis focuses on the crossing time, i.e. the time loss that occurs in crossing situations. A simplified analytical model, SAMFOST, has been developed to calculate the crossing time as a function of infrastructure configuration, vehicle properties, timetable and delays for two crossing trains. The effect of possible surrounding trains is not taken into account and all kinds of congestion effects are thus excluded from evaluation. SAMFOST has been successfully validated against the simulation tool RailSys, which shows that this type of simplified model is accurate in non-congested situations. A great advantage of disregarding congested situations is that analysis is independent of timetable assumptions. The model also explicitly shows the effect of punctuality, which is of particular importance on single-track lines where the interdependencies between trains are strengthened by the crossings. For the same reason, the timetable is severely constrained. Nonetheless, there is often a need for changes of the timetable (crossing pattern). The thesis proposes three simple measures of timetable flexibility, all based on assigned crossing time requirements. Together, these measures can be used to evaluate how infrastructure configuration, vehicle properties, punctuality etc affect possibilities to alter the timetable. As an example of its application, SAMFOST has been used to evaluate the effect of shorter inter-station distance, partial double-track and combined crossing and passenger stop. These measures affect the operational properties quite differently. More crossing stations result in a minor decrease in travel time (lower mean crossing time) but significantly higher reliability (lower crossing time variance). These effects are independent of punctuality, which is a valuable property. A partial double-track results in shorter travel times and in some cases also higher reliability. Both effects are strongly dependent on punctuality and high punctuality is needed to achieve high effects. A combined crossing and passenger stop results in a situation similar to that of a partial double-track. In this case it is important to point out that the assignment of time supplements in the timetable should be directly correlated to punctuality in order to achieve good operation. / <p>QC 20170222</p>

This thesis shows the advantages of simple models for analysis of railway operation. It presents two tools for infrastructure and timetable planning. It shows how the infrastructure can be analysed through fictive line designs, how the timetable can be treated as a variable and how delays can be used as performance measures. The thesis also gives examples of analyses of complex traffic situations through simulation experiments. Infrastructure configuration, timetable design and delays play important roles in the competitiveness of railway transportation. This is especially true on single-track lines where the run times and other timetable related parameters are severely restricted by crossings (train meetings). The first half of this thesis focuses on the crossing time, i.e. the time loss that occurs in crossing situations. A simplified analytical model, SAMFOST, has been developed to calculate the crossing time as a function of infrastructure configuration, vehicle properties, timetable and delays for two crossing trains. Three measures of timetable flexibility are proposed and they can be used to evaluate how infrastructure configuration, vehicle properties, punctuality etc affect possibilities to alter the timetable. Double-track lines operated with mixed traffic show properties similar to those of single-tracks. In this case overtakings imply scheduled delays as well as risk of delay propagation. Two different methods are applied for analysis of double-tracks: a combinatorial, mathematical model (TVEM) and simulation experiments. TVEM, Timetable Variant Evaluation Model, is a generic model that systematically generates and evaluates timetable variants. This method is especially useful for mixed traffic operation where the impact of the timetable is considerable. TVEM may also be used for evaluation of different infrastructure designs. Analyses performed in TVEM show that the impact on capacity from the infrastructure increases with speed differences and frequency of service for the passenger trains, whereas the impact of the timetable is strongest when the speed differences are low and/or the frequency of passenger services is low. Simulation experiments were performed to take delays and perturbations into account. A simulation model was set up in the micro simulation tool RailSys and calibrated against real operational data. The calibrated model was used for multi-factor analysis through experiments where infrastructure, timetable and perturbation factors were varied according to an experimental design and evaluated through response surface methods. The additional delay was used as response variable. Timetable factors, such as frequency of high-speed services and freight train speed, turned out to be of great importance for the additional delay, whereas some of the perturbation factors, i.e. entry delays, only showed a minor impact. The infrastructure factor, distance between overtaking stations, showed complex relationships with several interactions, principally with timetable factors. / QC20100622 / Framtida infrastruktur och kvalitet i tågföring