Author : Trivedi H.S.

This paper deals with timetabling process of a suburban rail services. The timetabling of suburban rail services in metropolitan cities is very complex one. As the number of trains are very much and services to the customer is critical parameter, The main focus for the scheduling of trains is to provide best services to the customer in terms of minimization of Total Average Waiting Time (TAWT) of the customer at the stations. A case study of western suburban rail services is taken here to demonstrate, how to achieve the goal with all the available current resources & improve the scheduling system by reducing the TAWT of the customer. As there are so many constraints when schedule is to be prepared, we have developed an algorithm to decide the best sequence and starting time of the train during peak hour* and constraint propagation system to decide the running time of the train between stations with arrival and departure time at each station. The technique described here will be very much useful when resources are limited and requirements are heavy for the trains’ services. The fundamental issue covered here is to schedule the routing of the trains, and the algorithm described here may help to schedule other kind of transportation services too.

Keywords: TAWT, Waiting time, Rail, Mumbai, Scheduling of commuter services

Article published in International Journal of Current Engineering and Technology, Vol.6, No.1 (Feb-2016)