Welcome to the page about the mixed-traffic railway capacity simulator tool. Capabilities of this tool are quite similar to the other section-simulator tool called COST, whose development was supported by RDSO, Lucknow. The additional feature in this tool is that it is possible to obtain a zero-based timetable, i.e. de-novo timetable, for a given section, after a list of trains and their relative priorities are specified. Further, we are currently working on making this tool capable of using the infrastructure and train data in a data-format that is currently used by CRIS.
Other objectives of the tool are as follows. The tool helps in an accurate estimation of the throughput and capacity of a rail-section, and thus helps in an analysis of the congestion in the network in the context of freight trains. A detailed comparison can be made on the timetable generated before and after key scenarios: like addition of a loop line or adding/removing temporary speed restrictions (TSR).
1) Code logic overview
The simulator tool works on the following logic. Every train moves at a velocity so that it respects the occupancy information provided by movements of higher priority trains which are already scheduled. Signals with different number of aspects are simulated to capture the occupancy information and thus subsequent trains run at speeds allowed by the multiple-aspect signalling. We emphasise that this is a capacity planning tool, and not an on-line control tool, and so the scenarios that are simulated assume that all train movements are known in advance and the tool computes the section occupancies, throughput and performance measures accordingly. The logic has a lot in common with control in real time, but needs significantly different interfaces and utilities to be able to used for that purpose.
2) Use of the simulator
The simulator provides multiple ways of providing data by the users. It is meant for evaluating capacity enhancement decisions such as
- Introduction of intermediate blocks
- Introduction of automatic signaling
- Re-spacing of signals on a section
- Addition of new loop lines at stations
- Changing the alignment of access to loop lines at stations
- Assessing the impact of faster freight trains
- Assessing timetable changes of scheduled passenger trains
- Assessing the impact of temporary/permanent speed restrictions
As can be seen, almost the entire gamut of railway technology options can be modeled and the impact on throughput/capacity/congestion can be assessed on key sections of railways. The scenarios of importance need to be identified and modeled through the data entry mechanisms and then compared systematically. Each such effort requires very careful data validation and experimentation and it is not realistic to provide direct interface options for all such possibilities. There are simply too many options that users can wish to compare scenarios across, and this needs to be done outside the simulator tool itself. The tool provides the capability to impose the given traffic on a given infrastructure and tabulate performance statistics which can be used by the user.
Those intending to use the tool and/or develop further features into the tool are requested to contact the contact-persons listed below.
Contributors: Devendra Shelar, Peeyush Gupta, Abhishek Singh, R. Vidyadhar, Soumya Dutta, P. Sudarshan, Sushil Bobade, Ayush Agrawal, Aayush Aggarwal, Anuj Sahu and Vipin Maurya.
Contact persons:
Prof. Narayan Rangaraj, Industrial Engineering and Operations Research (IEOR) IIT Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400 076 Email: narayan.rangaraj[AT]iitb.ac.in
and/or
Prof. Madhu N. Belur Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400 076 Email: belur[AT]iitb.ac.in
Last modified: 13th January 2020