Track Allocation Optimization in Railway Station: Mean-Variance Model and Case Study

Abstract

Allocating tracks with operation restrictions for trains in a conflict-free way is known as the basic scheduling problem, and it has attracted much attention, especially at the station bottlenecks. First, this paper presents a mean-variance optimization model for solving the track allocation problem that minimizes the occupation time costs in groups of turnouts at station bottlenecks. Then the simulated annealing algorithm is provided to solve this programming. In addition, a case of a China railway station focused on track allocation is performed that illustrates the application of the proposed model. Also, considering the quality of track allocation program, an evaluation function that tests the results in a balanced allocation is built to further strengthen the allocating results. Finally, to verify the efficiency of the simulated annealing algorithm, the effects of algorithm parameters on an optimizing function have been tested. It illustrates that the algorithm parameters have great effect on the global optimal results. The more cycles the program runs, the better optimization results will be obtained.