A Graphical Tool for Planning and Real-Time Operation of Freight Trains

Indian railways are one of the four largest railway systems globally and transport more than a billion tonnes of freight each year. However, several of the routes share the tracks with passenger trains. Passenger and freight trains operate at distinct speeds, and a slow-running freight train is often stopped to pass a faster passenger train. This leads to a reduction in the average speed of the freight train. In this context, a pre-processing tool to assist in the operational planning of freight trains using a trajectory-based graphical approach was developed to insert feasible rail movements in real time. The proposed method and its effectiveness are demonstrated using real-world data, which shows that the proposed method can greatly reduce delays and provide significant benefits for real-time applications.