Optimized Train-Set Rostering Plan for Taiwan High-Speed Rail

• Published in: IEEE transactions on automation science and engineering Vol. 14; no. 1; pp. 286 - 298
• Main Authors: Lai, Yung-Cheng, Wang, Shao-Wei, Huang, Kwei-Long
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.01.2017; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Automation; Bismuth; Decision support; Heuristic; High speed rail; Maintenance engineering; Manuals; Optimization techniques; Rail transportation; Rails; Railway networks; rolling stock rostering; Schedules; Trains; Taiwan
• ISSN: 1545-5955; 1558-3783
• DOI: 10.1109/TASE.2016.2526039

Railway rolling stock is one of the most expensive assets of railway operators. Efficient utilization of rolling stock is one of the most important objectives pursued in practice. This research focuses on the improvement in rolling stock rostering efficiency for high-speed rail system. According to the circulation schedule and long-term maintenance plan, the rostering planner decides the assignment between rolling stock and duties subject to a set of practical constraints. Owing to its complexity, this task remains a manual process at the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation. Experienced railway practitioners can generally create a good and feasible plan, but they cannot guarantee optimality of the solution considering only short-term process. In this research, we developed an exact optimization model and a heuristic method to automate this process and improve the efficiency of rolling stock utilization. Results from the case studies demonstrate that the efficiency of the rolling stock usage can be increased by 3% ~ 4%, and that the process time can be significantly reduced from hours to seconds.