Evaluating Suitability for High-frequency Train Operations of Track Layout at a Double-track Railway Terminus

A double-track railway terminus often becomes a bottleneck under high train frequency owing to longer dwell times and frequent conflicts between trains moving in both directions. This study evaluates the track layout at the terminus by optimizing the order of arrivals and departures to achieve the highest train frequency. Based on the result of our initial analysis which indicated that this optimization problem closely resembles the “Asynchronous Travelling Salesman Problem”, an NP-hard problem, we applied genetic algorithm and obtained satisfactory optimisation results. We believe that this technique holds potential for improving the performance of urban railways.