Conference article

When large maintenance work is done at a double track line, it is often possible to have one of the two tracks open for traffic. The traffic then run with single track operation which heavily affects the capacity and need to be planned in an early stage, before the yearly timetable is finalized. Today, in Sweden, there are some difficulties when planning for maintenance works and how to adapt the reduced capacity in the timetable. Due to an increased demand for capacity and for better punctuality from train operators, there is a need for more well thought-out strategies for how to handle the capacity restriction and for how much robustness is needed in the timetable to preserve a certain quality. In this paper, we present a study which assess strategies for double track maintenance work leading to single track operations. A simulation study is performed in which three different timetable strategies are tested and evaluated. The aim is to find strategies and timetable rules to better handle capacity reductions at double track lines so that trains can run with high quality even though there are maintenance works at the same time. In the paper we discuss the advantages and disadvantages with the three strategies and how they affect train slots, runtimes and punctuality.

Railway timetabling, Robustness, Capacity reduction, Simulation, Punctuality