Automatic Train Regulation with Time Tuning and Holding Control under the Saturated Passenger Demand Condition

For urban mass transit systems in the saturated passenger flow situation, the normal operation of trains might be disturbed by the unexpected disturbance. A large bunch of passengers might be stranded on platforms due to service gaps and the limited free capacity of trains. In this paper, we develop an automatic train regulation model which integrates two different regulation strategies and considers the pre-set automatic train operation (ATO) recommended speed profile. More specifically, a mixed integer programming (MIP) model is proposed which aims to jointly reduce the total train delay and the number of stranded passengers. We consider a train holding strategy to futher balance the interval of two consecutive trains which can reduce the number of stranded passengers on the platform. Then, a state-of-the-art mathematical solver CPLEX is adopted to solve the problem, which can obtain trade-off solutions in a reasonable time. Finally, two experiments based on the operational data of the Beijing Subway Yizhuang Line are carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach.