A Method for Robust Strategic Railway Dispatch Applied to a Single Track Line

A method is presented for global optimization of a dispatch plan assuming perfect information over a given time horizon. An example problem is solved for the North American case of a single dominant high-speed train sharing a network with a majority flow of slower trains. Initial dispatch priority and speed changes to selected trains consume network capacity; but incremental speed increases of these trains, combined with appropriate dispatch strategies, are beneficial to the network as a whole. Further, specific siding enhancements demonstrate measureable improvements in network flow.