Timetable design for minimizing passenger travel time and congestion for a single metro line

Abstract

This paper brings a proposal for a timetable optimization model for minimizing the passenger travel time and congestion for a single metro line under time-dependent demand. The model is an integer-programming model that systemically considers the passenger travel time, the capacity of trains, and the capacity of platforms. A multi-objective function and a recursive optimization method are presented to solve the optimization problem. Using the model we can obtain an efficient timetable with minimal passenger travel time and minimal number of congestion events on platforms. Moreover, by increasing the number of dispatches, the critical point from congestion state to free-flow state and the optimal timetable with minimal cost for avoiding congestion on platforms can be obtained. The effectiveness of the model is evaluated by a real example. A half-regular timetable with fixed headways in each operation period and an irregular timetable with unfixed headway are investigated for comparison.