Rescheduling and Train Control: A New Framework for Railroad Traffic Control in Heavily Used Networks

The paper explains a new advanced rail traffic management system that combines real-time rescheduling with an advanced train control tool being developed by the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) in cooperation with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH). The system is designed to increase network capacity and stability in heavily used mixed traffic networks while minimizing the cost of new infrastructure. The system combines real-time rescheduling, train control, and a new strategy for train operations into a coordinated traffic management system. The approach is based on saturated use of network capacity bottlenecks, which is implemented by ensuring that every train always has an up-to-date, conflict free schedule containing time, speed and route information. These schedules must have an accuracy of seconds. As part of the research, a simulation of rail operations in the Lucerne main station area was performed to test the potential benefits of this approach. The simulation showed that the approach significantly increased stability and capacity.