Analysis of the robustness of terminal turnaround arrangements for railways

Daisuke Hasegawa; Gemma Nicholson; Clive Roberts; Felix Schmid

Analysis of the robustness of terminal turnaround arrangements for railways

View Fulltext

Author(s): Daisuke Hasegawa ¹ ; Gemma Nicholson ¹ ; Clive Roberts ¹ ; Felix Schmid ¹
- Affiliations: 1: Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, UK
Source: Volume 10, Issue 1, February 2016, p. 41 – 49
DOI: 10.1049/iet-its.2015.0039 , Print ISSN 1751-956X, Online ISSN 1751-9578

Received 27/02/2015, Accepted 15/10/2015, Revised 09/09/2015, Published 01/02/2016

The application of Lean principles to terminus operations of high-speed railways has the potential of enhancing the efficiency of resource usage during both the construction and operation periods, through faster turnarounds and, hence, a reduced space requirement thanks to fewer platform tracks being needed. However, this greater efficiency must not be allowed to result in less robust services. The robust design of products and processes has been studied extensively in the manufacturing industry. By contrast, the robustness of high level railway operational concepts and system design has been investigated rarely. In this study, Taguchi methods that originated in the manufacturing industry are applied to a robustness assessment of system designs in the context of railway operations. The approach is used to assess terminus designs with different numbers of platform tracks, layouts with particular conflict patterns, minimum required turnaround times and signalling facility capability. The authors use a Monte–Carlo simulation with statistical delay distributions. The simulation results show that the signalling system's capability is the most important factor in achieving high capacity and that the robustness of railway terminus operations is not affected by adopting faster turnaround and having fewer platform tracks at termini. Finally, some suggestions for future planning are presented.

References

1. 1)
  - 11. Chen, L.: ‘Real time traffic management in junction areas and bottleneck’ (The University of Birmingham, 2012).
2. 2)
  - 22. Landex, A., Jensen, L.W.: ‘Measures for track complexity and robustness of operation at stations’, J. Rail Transp. Plan. Manag., 2013, 3, (1–2), pp. 22–35 (doi: 10.1016/j.jrtpm.2013.10.003).
3. 3)
  - 12. Jones, D., Roos, D., Womack, J.: ‘Machine that changed the world’ (Simon & Schuster, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1990).
4. 4)
  - 19. Bendell, A., Disney, J., Pridmore, W.A.: ‘Taguchi methods: applications in world industry’ (IFS, Bedford, 1989).
5. 5)
  - 20. Phadke, M. (Ed.): ‘Principles of quality engineering’, in ‘Quality engineering using robust design’ (Simon & Schuster, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1989), pp. 13–40.
6. 6)
  - 14. Shingo, S.: ‘A revolution in manufacturing: the SMED system’ (Productivity Press, Cambridge, MA and Norwalk, CT, 1985).
7. 7)
  - 1. UIC High Speed Department: ‘High speed lines in the world’ (Paris, 2013); http://old.uic.org/IMG/pdf/20131101_d_high_speed_lines_in_the_world_maps.pdf.
8. 8)
  - 10. Fioole, P.J., Kroon, L., Maróti, G., et al: ‘A rolling stock circulation model for combining and splitting of passenger trains’, Eur. J. Oper. Res., 2006, 174, (2), pp. 1281–1297 (doi: 10.1016/j.ejor.2005.03.032).
9. 9)
  - 27. Mense, O.: ‘ETCS levels’, in Stanley, P. (Ed.): ‘ETCS for engineers’ (Eurailpress, Hamburg, 2011), pp. 43–50.
10. 10)
  - 25. HS2 Ltd: ‘HS2 project specification’ (London, 2012); http://assets.hs2.org.uk/sites/default/files/inserts/hs2%20project%20specification_january%202012.pdf.
11. 11)
  - 4. Hasegawa, D., Nicholson, G., Roberts, C., et al: ‘Lean operation for new high speed railways’. in Schmid, F. (Ed.): 1964–2064 High Speed Rail: Celebrating Ambition, Univ. of Birmingham, 2014; https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/eps/hsr/conference.aspx.
12. 12)
  - 8. Cacchiani, V., Toth, P.: ‘Nominal and robust train timetabling problems’, Eur. J. Oper. Res., 2012, 219, (3), pp. 727–737 (doi: 10.1016/j.ejor.2011.11.003).
13. 13)
  - 28. Pachl, J.: ‘Timetable design principles’, in Hansen, I.A., Pachl, J. (Eds.): ‘Railway timetable & traffic analysis, modelling’ (Eurailpress, Hamburg, 2014, 2nd ed.), pp. 13–46.
14. 14)
  - 15. Ohno, T.: ‘Toyota production system: beyond large-scale production’ (Productivity Press, Cambridge, MA, 1988).
15. 15)
  - 3. Kent, S., Milgott, D., Smith, M., et al: ‘Lean analysis of track maintenance process’ (Brussels, 2012); http://www.automain.eu/IMG/pdf/d2.2_lean_analysis_of_track_maintenance_process.pdf.
16. 16)
  - 9. Yamamura, A., Koresawa, M., Adachi, S., et al: ‘Taking effective delay reduction measures and using delay elements as indices for Tokyo's metropolitan railways’, Comput. Railw. XIV, 2014, 135, pp. 3–15 (doi: 10.2495/CR140011).
17. 17)
  - 16. Monden, Y.: ‘Toyota production system: an integrated approach to just-in-time’ (CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 2011, 4th edn.).
18. 18)
  - 7. Liker, J. (Ed.): ‘The Toyota way: using operational excellnce as a strategic weapon’, in ‘The Toyota way: 14 management principles from the world's greatest manufacturer’ (McGraw-Hill, Inc, New York, NY, 2004), pp. 3–14.
19. 19)
  - 5. Hasegawa, D., Nicholson, G., Roberts, C., et al: ‘Lean principles and sustainable operation of high-speed railways’. in How, F., Iwnicki, S., Broadbent, A., Gostling, R. (Eds.): The Stephenson Conference Research for Railways, Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 2015, pp. 815–824.
20. 20)
  - 6. Spear, S., Bowen, H.K.: ‘Decoding the DNA of the Toyota production system – HBR’, Harv. Bus. Rev., 1999, no. September–October, pp. 96–108.
21. 21)
  - 2. Womack, J., Jones, D.T.: ‘Lean thinking: banish waste and create wealth in your corporation’ (Simon & Schuster, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1996).
22. 22)
  - 26. Yuan, J.: ‘Statistical analysis of train delays’, in Hansen, I.A.J.P. (Ed.): ‘Railway timetable & traffic analysis, modelling’ (Eurailpress, Humburg, 2008), pp. 170–181.
23. 23)
  - 21. Taguchi, G. (Ed.): ‘Off-line and on-line quality control’, in ‘Introduction to quality engineering: designing quality into products and processes’ (Asian Prouctivity Organization, Tokyo, 1986), pp. 73–96.
24. 24)
  - 23. Phadke, M.S. (Ed.): ‘Matrix experiments using orthogonal arrays’, in ‘Quality engineering using robust design’ (Simon & Schuster, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1989), pp. 41–65.
25. 25)
  - 17. Lu, M., Nicholson, G.L., Schmid, F., et al: ‘A framework for the evaluation of the performance of railway networks’, Int. J. Railw. Technol., 2013, 2, (2), pp. 79–96 (doi: 10.4203/ijrt.2.2.4).
26. 26)
  - 18. Goverde, R.M.P., Hansen, I.A.: ‘Performance indicators for railway timetables’. 2013 IEEE Int. Conf. Intelligent Rail Transportation Proc., August 2013, pp. 301–306.
27. 27)
  - 13. Rother, M., Shook, J.: ‘Learning to see: value stream mapping to add value and eliminate muda’ (Lean Enterprise Institute, Cambridge, MA, 2003).
28. 28)
  - 24. MacKay, D.J.C.: ‘Introduction to Monte Carlo methods’, Learn. Graph. Model., 1998, pp. 175–204 (doi: 10.1007/978-94-011-5014-9_7).

Login

Not registered yet?

Share

Tools

Login to add to favourites

Key

Analysis of the robustness of terminal turnaround arrangements for railways

References

Related content