A Simulation Approach to Developing the Mixed Timetable of Regular and Express Trains in Urban Railway Network

There has been much discussion of introducing express train service in urban railway transportation since the express train service was successfully launched in Seoul line 9. However the discussion is mainly focused on the infrastructure problem like how to install siding tracks or the corresponding costs. This study addresses the operational aspects in operating the express trains; for example, how to calculate of running times of express trains or headway between the trains, and then how to make up the timetable. These aspects have been found out by means of another special project. We suggest a simulation based approach to develop the mixed timetable. The approach consists of the several steps of calculating some fundamental times, adding the trains, and adjusting the arrival and departure times. The approach has some advantages that the running time and headway are automatically calculated within the simulation software so that the feasibility of timetable can be easily checked. We could yield a mixed feasible timetable of regular and express trains in the Seoul line 9 just by means of the suggested procedure.