Author/Authors :
Shakibayifar Masoud نويسنده Iran University of Science & Technology , Sheikholeslami Abdorreza نويسنده Iran University of Science & Technology , Corman Francesco نويسنده Transport Engineering and Logistics, TUDelft
Abstract :
Delays and disruptions reduce the reliability and stability of the rail operations.
Railway trac rescheduling includes ways to manage the operations during and after the
occurrence of such disturbances. In this study, we consider the simultaneous presence of
large disruptions (temporary full or partial blockage of tracks) as well as stochastic variation
of operations as a source of disturbance. The occurrence time of blockage and its recovery
time are given. We designed a simulation-based optimization model that incorporates
dynamic dispatch priority rules with the objective of minimizing the total delay time of
trains. We, moreover, designed a variable neighborhood search meta-heuristic scheme for
handling trac under the limited capacity close to the blockage. The new plan includes
a set of new departure times, dwell times, and train running times. We evaluated the
proposed model on a set of disruption scenarios covering a large part of the Iranian rail
network. The result indicates that the developed simulation-based optimization approach
has substantial advantages in producing practical solution quickly, when compared to
commercial optimization software. In addition, the solutions have a lower average and
smaller standard deviation than the currently accepted solutions, determined by human
dispatcher or by standard software packages.