Development of Analytical Capacity Models for Conventional Railways with Advanced Signaling Systems
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 138, Issue 7
Abstract
Railways around the world are experiencing growth in traffic demand and the need to expand their network and line capacity. To accommodate the substantial demand, the conventional railway operator in Taiwan, the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA), is interested in understanding the potential benefit of adopting various advanced signaling systems, such as hybrid or moving-block systems. In this study, the authors developed a set of analytical capacity models for conventional rail operations with advanced signaling systems, which were implemented in the busiest corridor in the TRA system. The empirical results show that advanced signaling systems generally have positive capacity effects. However, the benefit may not be substantial due to constraints from the station track layouts. Therefore, possible capacity improvement alternatives, such as improving track layouts and upgrading signaling systems, should be considered together to determine the optimal capacity improvement plan. The use of these proposed capacity models can help railway agencies with similar operational environments in their capacity management and resource planning projects.
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Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to Dr. Jyh-Cherng Jong, Ms. Tzu-Ya Lin, and Mr. Kuo-Chu Liu for their assistance on this project. This project was funded by the National Science Council (NSC) of the Republic of China under grant NSC 98-2221-E002-114-MY3.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 138 • Issue 7 • July 2012
Pages: 961 - 974
Copyright
© 2012. American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 26, 2011
Accepted: Dec 12, 2011
Published online: Jun 15, 2012
Published in print: Jul 1, 2012
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