Joint optimization of train stop planning and timetabling with time-dependent passenger and freight demands in high-speed railway

To effectively utilize the remaining transportation capacity and increase the revenue of railway transport enterprises during periods of lower passenger demand, this study proposes a general framework for the joint optimization of train stop planning and timetabling problems based on a flexible train composition mode for passenger and freight co-transportation on high-speed railways. This framework aims to simultaneously provide different transport services for time-dependent passenger and freight demands. With the basic services being satisfied, a quadratic programming model is formulated to maximize the transportation revenue of railway companies by considering different operation costs of different types of train composition modes and minimizing the time deviations of passenger and freight compared with their desired service times. To effectively solve the proposed model, a heuristic approach combining the variable neighborhood search (VNS) and the commercial solver CPLEX is designed to search for high-quality solutions. Finally, the performance and effectiveness of the proposed approaches are verified using a small-scale example and a real case study of the Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed railway.