Research project

Overcoming Capacity Constraints - A Simulation Integrated with Optimisation for Nodes (OCCASION)

Project overview

OCCASION was a collaboration between TRG and the Schools of Mathematics and Management. The project’s objective was to identify and investigate innovative methods of increasing the capacity of nodes (i.e. junctions and stations) on the railway network, without substantial investment in additional infrastructure. To this end, a state-of-the-art review of recent and ongoing work in this area was conducted, and tools were developed to;

(i) assess existing and predicted levels of capacity utilisation at nodes, thus filling a gap in the current assessment ‘toolbox’, and

(ii) investigate improved options for re-routeing and rescheduling trains, with a view to reducing capacity utilisation levels and making more use of the capacity potentially available, including consideration of the interactions between timetable changes at adjacent nodes.

These tools were used to develop solutions delivering reduced levels of capacity utilisation, and thus increases in capacity and/or service reliability. Incremental changes to existing railway technologies (e.g. improved points) and operating practice (e.g. relaxations of the Timetable Planning Rules) were investigated, as were concepts from other modes (e.g. road and air transport) and sectors (e.g. production scheduling).

The capacity utilisation analysis tools have since been used in collaboration with Arup in the Capacity Charge Recalibration for Network Rail.

Staff

Lead researchers

Professor John Preston

Professor in Rail Transport

Research interests

  • Demand, capacity and cost modelling for sustainable transport infrastructure.
  • The design, monitoring and evaluation of transport interventions designed to promote sustainable choices.
  • The determination of pathways for future mobility transitions to net zero carbon.
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Other researchers

Emeritus Professor Chris Potts

Research interests

  • Combinatorial Optimization, especially scheduling in production and transport
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Collaborating research institutes, centres and groups

Research outputs

John Armstrong & Jonathan Preston, 2017, Journal of Rail Transport Planning & Management, 7(3), 187-205
Type: article
John Armstrong, Jonathan Preston, Christopher Potts, Tolga Bektas & D. Paraskevopoulos, 2017, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part F: Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit, 231(5), 637-646
Type: article
D. Paraskevopoulos, T. Bektas, T.G. Crainic & C.N. Potts, 2016, European Journal of Operational Research, 253(2), 265-279
Type: article
2016, Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 85, 166-187
Type: article
M. Khadem Sameni & John M. Preston, 2012, Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2289, 134-144
Type: article