Author(s)

L Florio & L Mussone

Abstract

The paper concerns the outlining of a timetable for a railway line in order to maximize the exploitation of its capacity. The application examined is the line Bern-Thun of the Swiss Federal Railways (FFS), characterized by heavy heterogeneous traffic. Long and complex computer-aided calculations on the capacity of stretches and stations on the line showed that there are further utilization margins; hence the wish to reset the timetable to maximize the utilization of the line capacity. This implied the complete repositioning of trains on station tracks and a relevant change in managing the railway station plan of the city of Bern. The results thus obtained can be generalized: an \“optimal” timetable - that can combine the max transport capacity and the users demands - exists for any railway line.

Keywords