An Empirical Study of Timetable Strategies and Their Effects on Punctuality
Palmqvist, Carl-William LU
; Olsson, Nils
and Hiselius, Lena
LU
(2017)
7th International Conference on Railway Operations Modelling and Analysis
- Abstract
- Punctuality in Sweden has been too low for several years, and there is now a goal in the industry that it must improve by more than five percentage points by 2020. Research has shown that timetable properties affect punctuality, and timetables can be changed relatively quickly and easily, compared to infrastructure and rolling stock. In this paper we study some strategies for assigning margins in timetables, and how they affect punctuality. The aim is to identify changes that can improve the punctuality of passenger trains. The study is based on a dataset containing detailed timetables and records of train movements for all trains in Sweden during the year of 2015, over 1.1 million departures. We find that every additional percentage point... (More)
- Punctuality in Sweden has been too low for several years, and there is now a goal in the industry that it must improve by more than five percentage points by 2020. Research has shown that timetable properties affect punctuality, and timetables can be changed relatively quickly and easily, compared to infrastructure and rolling stock. In this paper we study some strategies for assigning margins in timetables, and how they affect punctuality. The aim is to identify changes that can improve the punctuality of passenger trains. The study is based on a dataset containing detailed timetables and records of train movements for all trains in Sweden during the year of 2015, over 1.1 million departures. We find that every additional percentage point of margins improves punctuality by about 0.1 percentage points, and about the same for every percentage point increase in the weighted average distance of margins. It is common for margins on some line sections to be negative, which lowers punctuality by on average 4.1 percentage points. Small time supplements directly following station stops are associated with a punctuality drop of 2.5 percentage points. We also find that the number of interactions between trains at stations, and on line sections, lowers punctuality by 1.2 and 3.9 percentage points per instance, respectively. From these results we propose a package of changes to timetable planning which we estimate would improve overall punctuality by up to five percentage points. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/1d9624a5-db38-4e81-a954-f20c86d21c29
- author
- Palmqvist, Carl-William
LU
; Olsson, Nils
and Hiselius, Lena
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2017-04-06
- type
- Contribution to conference
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Railway, timetable, punctuality, time supplement, margins, train, delay
- pages
- 20 pages
- conference name
- 7th International Conference on Railway Operations Modelling and Analysis
- conference location
- Lille, France
- conference dates
- 2017-04-05 - 2017-04-07
- project
- Delays and Timetabling for Passenger Trains
- Mindre Störningar i Tågtrafiken
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 1d9624a5-db38-4e81-a954-f20c86d21c29
- date added to LUP
- 2017-11-06 14:12:40
- date last changed
- 2023-03-28 02:29:43
@misc{1d9624a5-db38-4e81-a954-f20c86d21c29,
abstract = {{Punctuality in Sweden has been too low for several years, and there is now a goal in the industry that it must improve by more than five percentage points by 2020. Research has shown that timetable properties affect punctuality, and timetables can be changed relatively quickly and easily, compared to infrastructure and rolling stock. In this paper we study some strategies for assigning margins in timetables, and how they affect punctuality. The aim is to identify changes that can improve the punctuality of passenger trains. The study is based on a dataset containing detailed timetables and records of train movements for all trains in Sweden during the year of 2015, over 1.1 million departures. We find that every additional percentage point of margins improves punctuality by about 0.1 percentage points, and about the same for every percentage point increase in the weighted average distance of margins. It is common for margins on some line sections to be negative, which lowers punctuality by on average 4.1 percentage points. Small time supplements directly following station stops are associated with a punctuality drop of 2.5 percentage points. We also find that the number of interactions between trains at stations, and on line sections, lowers punctuality by 1.2 and 3.9 percentage points per instance, respectively. From these results we propose a package of changes to timetable planning which we estimate would improve overall punctuality by up to five percentage points.}},
author = {{Palmqvist, Carl-William and Olsson, Nils and Hiselius, Lena}},
keywords = {{Railway; timetable; punctuality; time supplement; margins; train; delay}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{04}},
title = {{An Empirical Study of Timetable Strategies and Their Effects on Punctuality}},
url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/34404628/Palmqvist_et_al_2017_RailLille.pdf}},
year = {{2017}},
}