Model

In formulating the model, we consider many informations to be given a priori. Information such as
infrastructure layout of the network, the trains to be scheduled in the network and few timetable
requirements like the headway to be maintained, safety regulations and various other logistics
regulation are known beforehand.

Here the railway infrastructure is considered to be made of nodes and tracks, where nodes are the
places when the train have freedom to interact in the network whereas any type of interaction in
the tracks are forbidden. This is obvious considering, train can’t overtake or occupy the same
section of the track at a time. There are few other examples of nodes in a railway network like
junctions, crossings, yards etc.

In this model, we consider stations to be black boxes i.e. model doesn’t include the interaction
between different trains inside the station. The trains are considered in terms of train lines that
include the origin and destination of the trains, stopping pattern and frequency. The frequency of
the train means the number of trains that are operated in the line in one cycle.

A train timetable generally includes train travel times between stations, dwelling time in stations,
connection times between trains and other relevant informations for trains in the network which
are to be operated considering various restrictions of safety constraints, connection constraints
and other soft constraints like synchronization constraints. Normally, different times are
considered in terms of limits e.g. dwell time should be considered in such a way that it is enough
for the passengers to alight and board but not too much to cause further delay.

With the increase of demand of passengers and competition from other means of transportation,
train timetabling is essential for providing quality service leading to passenger satisfaction and
controlling cost of overall system. Many a times , the objection seems to be conflicting so
finding balance by assigning weights to various objectives are also considered in some timetable
formulations.

In the year of 1931, the concept of periodic timetable was introduced by Netherlands. Later, it
was adopted by other European countries that greatly facilitated the passenger travel and quickly
became the train charts of many countries.

Since the 1990s, many experts and scholars in China made in-depth and exhaustive research on
the operation diagram of high-speed railway (passenger dedicated lines). However, initially
using the traditional methods, it was difficult to improve the various shortcomings of the network
like poor regularity and lack of adaptability according to passenger demands.

One problem with Chinese passenger lines is its complexity which cause adaptation of foreign
theories difficult.
Model

With the help of events, CRTP can be linearly formulated. The events are denoted by triplets
including train, node (station), arrival or departure of the train. A train diagram denoted by 𝑉𝑎,𝑚,𝑡
denotes arrival of train t at node n.

Nomenclature

T: Cycle Time
N: Set of Trains

General Mathematical Model

The PESP model is given as

F = f (𝑥𝑖 ) (1)

Subject to:

Running Time on Segment:

𝑚𝑖𝑛 𝑡 𝑚𝑎𝑥
𝑟𝑡,𝑒 ≤ 𝑎𝑚 − 𝑑𝑛𝑡 + 𝐾𝑡,𝑠 𝑇 ≤ 𝑟𝑡,𝑒 (2)
∀𝑡 ∈ 𝑀, ∀𝑒 = (𝑖, 𝑗) ∈ 𝐸𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑝

Dwell Time at the Station

𝑚𝑖𝑛 𝑚𝑎𝑥
𝑑𝑤𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑡,𝑒 ≤ 𝑑𝑛𝑡 − 𝑎𝑛𝑡 + 𝐾𝑡,𝑠 𝑇 ≤ 𝑟𝑡,𝑒 (3)
∀𝑡 ∈ 𝑀, ∀𝑒 = (𝑖, 𝑗) ∈ 𝐸𝑑𝑤𝑒𝑙𝑙

Minimum Headway
′
−ℎ ≤ 𝑑𝑛𝑡 − 𝑑𝑛𝑡 + 𝐾′𝑡,𝑠 𝑇 ≤ ℎ
′
Which gives ℎ ≤ 𝑑𝑛𝑡 − 𝑑𝑛𝑡 + 𝐾 ′ 𝑡,𝑠 𝑇 ≤ 𝑇 − ℎ (4)
′
Similarly for arrival time ℎ ≤ 𝑎𝑛𝑡 − 𝑎𝑛𝑡 + 𝐾 ′ 𝑡,𝑠 𝑇 ≤ 𝑇 − ℎ (5)
Only these two constraints cannot satisfy the equation because there might come a situation
where both the trains fulfill these two constraints but still overtake each other at a section
between the stations.
Here arrival and departure headway are considered to be same which is normally 3 minutes in
terms of high-speed railway

We know that for a train

′
ℎ ≤ 𝑑𝑛𝑡 − 𝑑𝑛𝑡 + 𝐾′𝑡,𝑠 𝑇 ≤ 𝑇 − ℎ
Where
𝐾′𝑡,𝑠 is an integer of value 0 to 1.
Here Let us consider 𝑞𝑡 and 𝑞𝑡′ be the travel time of train T between two segments

So, we can safely assume

𝑟𝑡𝑚𝑖𝑛 ≤ 𝑞𝑡 ≤ 𝑟𝑡𝑚𝑎𝑥
And 𝑟𝑡′𝑚𝑖𝑛 ≤ 𝑞𝑡 ≤ 𝑟𝑡′𝑚𝑎𝑥
This means the speed of the train in a segment is between the maximum and minimum speed of
the train in that particular segment.

So by assumption
′
ℎ ≤ 𝑑𝑛𝑡 − 𝑑𝑛𝑡 + 𝐾′𝑡,𝑠 𝑇 ≤ 𝑇 − ℎ (i)
′
And ℎ ≤ 𝑎𝑛𝑡 − 𝑎𝑛𝑡 + 𝐾′𝑡,𝑠 𝑇 ≤ 𝑇 − ℎ (ii)

Let us consider a situation in which train t’ overtakes the train t in the section between two
stations. This is the situation we need to avoid in our solution. We consider a variable x such
that 0 < 𝑥 < 1.

𝑡
𝑎𝑚

𝑡′
𝑎𝑚
t’ 𝑞𝑡′

𝑑𝑛𝑡′ 𝑞𝑡

𝑑𝑛𝑡

n m
′
From the figure it is obvious that (𝑑𝑛𝑡′ − 𝑑 𝑡𝑛 ) < (𝑞 𝑡 − 𝑞 𝑡 )
So taking value of x which is between 0 and 1
We consider
′
(𝑑𝑛𝑡′ − 𝑑 𝑡𝑛 ) = 𝑥 (𝑞 𝑡 − 𝑞 𝑡 ) (iii)

So from equation (i) and (iii), we get

′
ℎ ≤ 𝑥(𝑞 𝑡 − 𝑞 𝑡 ) ≤ 𝑇 − ℎ (iv)
Similarly for arrival time, from above figure
𝑡′ 𝑡 ′
(𝑎𝑚 − 𝑎𝑚 ) = 𝑞 𝑡 − 𝑞 𝑡 − (𝑑𝑛𝑡′ − 𝑑 𝑡𝑛 )
𝑡′ 𝑡 ′ ′
(𝑎𝑚 − 𝑎𝑚 ) = 𝑞 𝑡 − 𝑞 𝑡 − 𝑥 (𝑞 𝑡 − 𝑞 𝑡 )
𝑡′ 𝑡 ′
(𝑎𝑚 − 𝑎𝑚 )= (𝑞 𝑡 − 𝑞 𝑡 )(1 − 𝑥) (v)

Considering equation (ii) and (v),

′
ℎ ≤ (𝑞 𝑡 − 𝑞 𝑡 )(1 − 𝑥) ≤ 𝑇 − ℎ (vi)

From equation (iv) and (vi), we have

′
(𝑞 𝑡 − 𝑞 𝑡 ) ≥ 2h
This case need to be avoided to prevent the overtaking in between the station. So, we have to
formulate a model considering avoiding such conditions.
′
We also know that 𝑞 𝑡 ≤ 𝑟𝑡𝑚𝑎𝑥 and 𝑞 𝑡 ≥ 𝑟𝑡′𝑚𝑖𝑛 .
′
So, we also have 𝑟𝑡𝑚𝑎𝑥 - 𝑟𝑡′𝑚𝑖𝑛 ≥ (𝑞 𝑡 - 𝑞 𝑡 )

So, we have for no overtaking to take place in the station (𝑟𝑡𝑚𝑎𝑥 - 𝑟𝑡′𝑚𝑖𝑛 ) < 2h.
The case can also be proved for train t overtaking train t’.

So, it is safe to assume, for the two trains not to overtake each other during their travel we can
assume that
Max (𝑟𝑡𝑚𝑎𝑥 - 𝑟𝑡′𝑚𝑖𝑛 , 𝑟𝑡′𝑚𝑎𝑥 - 𝑟𝑡𝑚𝑖𝑛 ) < 2h (6)

Proof: Suppose 𝑟𝑡𝑚𝑎𝑥 = 𝑟𝑡′𝑚𝑖𝑛 +2h

Let’s consider, if train t’ travel from station n to station m after train t. Consider 𝑑 𝑡𝑛 = 0 and 𝑑𝑡′𝑛 =
ℎ. This assume train t’ depart from station n with the headway time of h. If train t travels in its
minimum speed, it takes 𝑟𝑡𝑚𝑎𝑥 to reach station m. So we can consider 𝑎𝑡𝑛 = 𝑟𝑡𝑚𝑎𝑥 and train t’
travels in its lowest speed so, 𝑎𝑡′𝑛 = 𝑟𝑡′𝑚𝑖𝑛 +h.

Here 𝑟𝑡′𝑚𝑖𝑛 +h. = 𝑟𝑡𝑚𝑎𝑥 − ℎ. This proves that even if the trains have arrival and departure
headway constants, they still overtake each other which is not possible. So equation (6) is very
important for variable trip time condition.

Connection Operator
′
𝑐𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑛 ≤ 𝑑𝑛𝑡 − 𝑎𝑛𝑡 + 𝐾′𝑡,𝑠 𝑇 ≤ 𝑐𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑥 (7)
The objective function can be considered as

𝑛 𝑀−1 𝑛 𝑀−1
𝑡 𝑡 𝑡 𝑡
∑ ∑ (𝑑𝑚 − 𝑎𝑚 + 𝐾𝑡,𝑠 𝑇) + ∑ ∑ (𝑎𝑚+1 − 𝑑𝑚 + 𝐾𝑡,𝑠 𝑇)
𝑡=1 𝑚=2 𝑡=1 𝑚=1

In order to reduce the scale of the model, the running time between the stations is also sometimes
considered to be constant. Choosing the travel time to be variable, it is easier to calculate the
feasible solution but the solution is often calculated at low speed of train, which in case of high-
speed trains is not considered feasible.

Many difficulties will come in adopting Periodic Railway when it comes to Chinese high-speed
network. Only some lines will have the proper condition for adopting the periodic train diagram
completely, while other can adopt hybrid timetable consisting of periodic and non-periodic ones.
There are many long distance high speed in China where adopting periodic timetable will be
problematic because of passenger flow which demands are specific to the time of the day. So,
human intervention is required for adopting the periodic timetable in high speed lines in China.