Managing disruptions and disturbances on railway services: A real-scale case study

In the case of conventional rail lines, when disruptions occur, dispatchers have the difficult task of finding feasible rescheduling solutions rapidly so as to re-establish ordinary conditions as soon as possible. Despite the numerous contributions for automatic rescheduling proposed in the literature, this process is still totally controlled by dispatchers who decide according to their personal experience and under their own responsibility. Indeed, in many cases, it can be more advantageous to let the system revert to ordinary conditions without implementing any strategy rather than look for solutions which can reduce the discomfort perceived by passengers. In this paper we propose a system of models for managing the rail system, combining a microscopic simulation model with an assignment tool which is able to consider passenger flows on the network. As a result, the disutility experienced by users during their trip can be evaluated and feasible intervention strategies can be assessed, taking into account the passengers’ perspective. An application on a real regional line in Campania (Italy) shows the benefits of the proposed approach for performing off-line analyses of intervention solutions and helping dispatchers make decisions during critical events to increase service quality.