Short-turning Trains during Full Blockages in Railway Disruption Management

Abstract

Railway operations such as any other public transport modes, follows a timetable. However, unplanned events can disrupt the operation. In such occasions the traffic controllers have to deal with the disrupted traffic. Due to the complexity of coordinating the timetable, rolling stock, and crew, the traffic controllers face difficulties handling the traffic. With the advancement of digitalization and computational power, rescheduling algorithms can provide support to the traffic controllers. This thesis aims at providing support to the traffic controllers through rescheduling algorithms in case of complete blockages. A common practice in railway operations in case of complete blockage is to short-turn train services that are heading towards a blockage. This measure assigns the services that are approaching a station before the blockage to the scheduled services in the opposite direction. In this way, the disrupted area can be better isolated from the rest of the network. The main objective of this thesis is to optimize the short-turnings of the train services.