A Method for Robust Strategic Railway Dispatch Applied to a Single Track Line Available to Purchase

A method is presented for global optimization of a dispatch plan assuming perfect information over a given time horizon. An example problem is solved for the North American case of a single dominant high-speed train sharing a network with a majority flow of slower trains. Initial dispatch priority and speed changes to selected trains consume network capacity, but incremental speed increases of these trains, combined with appropriate dispatch strategies, are beneficial to the network as a whole. Further, specific siding enhancements demonstrate measureable improvements in network flow.