Sustainable Global Service Intention as objective for Controlling Railway Network Operations in Real Time

Abstract

Public transport in Switzerland is based on a regular periodic timetable connecting long distance and regional train services with local bus services and tourist ship lines. Thanks to this integrated periodic timetable it is possible to offer connections on a point to point network at reasonably high frequencies. The commercial idea behind this offer can be called global service intention (GSI). In case of operational disturbances it is a significant challenge for the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) to find the best substitution which is available for a delayed or disrupted train service in the given case. The criteria for a good or even the best substitution must attempt to minimize annoyance caused to patrons and hence can be defined in terms of the total delay time of all the passengers concerned by the disturbance. Some years ago, SBB (together with the ETH Zurich) started to investigate how the GSI can be decomposed into smaller manageable subunits, the local service intentions (LSI) which are defined for areas around stations with saturated traffic density. In addition methods have been developed how LSI’s can be converted automatically into local timetables or production plans. On the other hand a new planning concept is currently introduced in SBB. This concept is based on discrete time slots within which trains can enter, exit or pass through saturated station areas. These time