Evaluation of Railway Line Capacity Using General Purpose Simulation Tool

A White paper of the European Commission (Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area – Towards a competitive and resource efficient transport system) states that 30% of road freight over 300 km should shift to other modes of transport, such as rail transport, by 2030, and more than 50% by 2050. It is also asserted that by 2050, the majority of medium-distance passenger transport in Europe should be on rails. In order to prepare rail transport to be able to absorb expected flows of passengers and goods, reconstruction and revitalization of main and regional railway lines is necessary. One of the goals of railway lines reconstruction is to increase their capacity. Several capacity research methods exist. They can be classified as technology-oriented types of performance evaluations and are used for determination of adequate track infrastructure and signal systems design, operating performance and quality of operation. In principle, there are two methods for capacity research – an analytical and a simulation approach. The paper will be focused on the simulation approach.