Properties of train traffic flow in a moving block system

Abstract

The development direction of railways is toward the improvement of capacity and service quality, where the service quality includes safety, schedule, high speed, and comfort. In light of the existing cellular automaton models, in this paper, we develop a model to analyze the mixed running processes of trains with maximal speeds of 500 km/h and 350 km/h respectively in the moving block system. In the proposed model, we establish some sound rules to control the running processes of a train, where the rules include the departure rules in the intermediate stations, the overtaking rules, and the conditions of speed limitation for a train stopping at a station or passing through a station. With the consideration of the mixed ratio and the distance between two adjacent stations, the properties of the train traffic flow (including capacity and average speed) are simulated. The numerical results show that the interactions among different trains will affect the capacity, and a proper increase of the spatial distance between two adjacent stations can enhance the capacity and the average speed under the moving block.

Impact of Road Bends on Traffic Flow in a Single-Lane Traffic System

“…Liang and Xue examined the effect of curvature, arc length, and the road surface friction coefficiency on traffic flow and reproduced the phenomenon of go-and-stop in actual traffic conditions [22]. Wang et al revealed the characteristics and laws of running speed on different types of roads and its relationship with horizontal curve radius through the analysis of different types of road running speed prediction models and pointed out horizontal curve design values for all levels of roads [23].…”

A Study on the Effects of Redundant Time on the Operation of Different Speed-Grade Trains in Passenger Railway Line Traffic System by Using Cellular Automata Model

“…Qian et al proposed a cellular automaton traffic model for the four-aspect fixed autoblock systems and simulated the traffic phenomenon of train delay. They also investigated the effects of the main factors including train interval, proportion of freight train, dwell time of the train in the station, and the number of platforms [19][20][21][22][23]. Wang et al analyze the train systems under the moving block system by using the CA model.…”

“…Wang et al analyze the train systems under the moving block system by using the CA model. They proposed a new CA model to simulate the trains and achieved the needed data for the variations of section carrying capacity and the average train delay [24]. Zhou et al put forward a cellular automaton model which is used to solve the multispeed running system of the automatic blocking section and analyzed the influence of the different speed train composing rate and the overtaking distance on transporting capacity of railway section [25].…”

An Extended Cellular Automaton Model for Train Traffic Flow on the Dedicated Passenger Lines

“…For the moving block system, more and more models for simulating the railway traffic system based on the fixed block system were proposed currently [25][26][27][28][29][30]. Zhou et al [25] simulated the traffic phenomenon of the delay propagation in a moving-like block system.…”