Liang, Jialei (Beijing Jiaotong University), Chai, Ming (Beijing Jiaotong University), Yi, Haiwang (CHN Energy Shuohuang Railway Development Co., Ltd.), Sheng, Zhao (CHN Energy Shuohuang Railway Development Co., Ltd.), He, Zhanyuan (CHN Energy Shuohuang Railway Development Co., Ltd., Suning, Hebe), Xie, Dong (Bejing Hollysys Co., Ltd.), Liu, Haoyuan (Beijing Jiaotong University), Li, Kaicheng (Beijing Jiaotong University)

Optimize Virtually Coupled Heavy-haul Train Scheduling on Single-Track Bidirectional Lines

Scheduled for presentation during the Regular Session "S33a-Intelligent Control for Next-Generation Railway Systems" (FR-LM-T33), Friday, November 21, 2025, 10:50−11:10, Southport 3

2025 IEEE 28th International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC), November 18-21, 2025, Gold Coast, Australia

This information is tentative and subject to change. Compiled on October 18, 2025

Abstract

Heavy-haul railways play a crucial role in contemporary socioeconomic development by facilitating bulk goods transportation. However, the transport capacity of the single-track bidirectional (STB) line remains limited due to the conventional mechanical coupling between trains. To address this issue, this paper proposes a virtually coupled heavy-haul train scheduling model for STB lines. The model which aims to optimize the total travel time considers multiple linear constraints such as safe headway requirements, running time operations, train meeting scheduling, synchronous arrival/departure coordination, virtual coupling operations and rolling stock scheduling. An optimal scheduling plan is obtained using the commercial solver CPLEX within the specified time. Several simulations based on the real-world data from the Huangwan heavy-haul railway in China validate the performance of the model. The experimental results indicate that by applying the virtual coupling technology, the total travel time of heavy-haul railways can be reduced by 36.56%.