Train corridor scheduling process including various cost functions associated with railway operations

摘要

A process for scheduling the travel of trains on a rail corridor. The rail corridor includes a plurality of siding tracks onto which trains can be sided when a meet or pass occurs with another train on the corridor. A gradient search process is used with a cost function to determine the optimum schedule by moving each meet and pass to a siding. The individual train schedules are varied by changing train speed and/or the train departure time (i.e., the time at which the train enters the corridor).