A simulation-based approach for estimating the commercial capacity of railways

  • Authors:
  • Giuseppe Confessore;Giacomo Liotta;Patrizia Cicini;Francesco Rondinone;Paolo De Luca

  • Affiliations:
  • Institute of Industrial Technologies and Automation, Montelibretti (Rome), Italy;Institute of Industrial Technologies and Automation, Montelibretti (Rome), Italy;Piazza della Croce Rossa, Rete Ferroviaria Italiana S.p.A., Rome, Italy;Piazza della Croce Rossa, Rete Ferroviaria Italiana S.p.A., Rome, Italy;Analytics and Control Technology, Rome, Italy

  • Venue:
  • Winter Simulation Conference
  • Year:
  • 2009

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Abstract

Rail transport is expected to play a remarkable role for a sustainable mobility in Europe. This paper presents an approach for estimating the commercial capacity of railways. The commercial capacity is intended as the number of possible paths in a defined time window on a rail line, or part of it, considering a fixed path mix, with market-oriented quality. The capacity management is one of the most important tasks of railway Infrastructure Managers. The proposed simulation-based approach relies on the use of an optimizer and a simulator. The study has been developed for the rail line Verona-Brennero, located in the Italian part of the European Corridor Hamburg--Napoli. Computational results allowed to estimate the commercial capacity differences between the whole line and three important line sections within it. Other computational experiments showed the relevant estimated increase in commercial capacity that a reduction in time spacing between trains could imply.