Title: Path anticipation and prioritised conflict-free train rescheduling on a linear network

Authors: Nitin Kumar Sakhala; Ajinkya Tanksale; J.K. Jha

Addresses: Deceased; formerly of: Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, India ' Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, India ' Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, India

Abstract: Rail schedule may get disturbed due to unforeseen set of events, which requires a quick response to plan a new feasible schedule under the given set of complicating constraints, and resolving the potential conflicts among trains. This gives rise to the classical train timetable rescheduling (TTR) problem, which is combinatorial in nature and computationally challenging. In this work, we present the macroscopic train orientation of TTR problem with explicit consideration of safety characteristics. In case of disturbances, path anticipation criteria are used to generate a feasible and conflict-free schedule. A novel algorithm based on inhibitor net to prioritising trains and conflict-resolution is presented. We demonstrate the application of a decision support system with the controller's intervention for the considered problem. Finally, the proposed solution approach is tested for its efficiency on several test instances generated for a real-life case of a single-track corridor in the Indian rail network.

Keywords: train rescheduling; disturbance handling; conflict-resolution; Petri net.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOR.2019.104054

International Journal of Operational Research, 2019 Vol.36 No.4, pp.496 - 517

Received: 23 Aug 2016
Accepted: 26 Dec 2016
Published online: 10 Dec 2019 *

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