Carrying Capacity Constraints for Railway Networks

The paper describes the integrated modelling of infrastructural, signalling and scheduling constraints on the operation of railway networks, which produce strong effects on the capacity of the network itself. The single constraining effects are identified and modelled, as much as their possible interactions are evaluated. The results are useful for facing a wide set of practical issues, including the evaluation of the introduction of innovative technological devices, the line and station layouts design, the operational planning and timetabling, the regularity assessment and monitoring, the apportionment of the available capacity between different services and/or operators.