Scheduling trains on a railway network using a discrete event model of railway traffic

Scheduling trains in a railway network is a fundamental operational problem in the railway industry. A local feedback-based travel advance strategy is developed using a discrete event model of train advances along lines of the railway. This approach can quickly handle perturbations in the schedule and is shown to perform well on three time-performance criteria while maintaining the local nature of the strategy. If the local strategy leads to a deadlock, a capacity check algorithm is applied that prevents deadlock, but requires additional nonlocal information. Extensions to the strategy are developed for networks with double-track sections and with variable train characteristics and priorities. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.