Optimising capacity of railway lines under ETCS Level 2 by implementing densified block sections in station areas

With the increased focus on sustainable transportation, railway systems are experiencing increasing capacity demands. Since the construction of new rail infrastructure is very cost intensive, infrastructure managers have a high motivation in increasing the capacity of existing railway infrastructure efficiently. With an implementation of the European Train Control System, block sections of railway infrastructure can be designed more flexible, resulting in enhancements of infrastructure capacity. In this work, we introduce the technique of implementing densified block sections in the line infrastructure and analyse their effect on the nominal capacity with the help of timetable-independent expected waiting time calculations. The results show that an implementation of those densified block sections can not only increase the nominal capacity of the railway line, but additionally save costs by reducing the necessary amount of block sections. Based on their operational constraints, suitable parameter settings for these densified block sections are identified and subsequently integrated into the strategic infrastructure layout for long-term planning.