An Extended Cellular Automaton Model for Train Traffic Flow on the Dedicated Passenger Lines

As one of the key components for the railway transportation system, the Train Operation Diagram can be greatly influenced by many extrinsic and intrinsic factors. Therefore, the railway train flow has shown the strong nonlinear characteristics, which makes it quite difficult to take further relative studies. Fortunately, the cellular automaton model has its own advantages in solving nonlinear problems and traffic flow simulation. Considering the mixed features of multispeed running trains on the passenger dedicated lines, this paper presents a new train model under the moving block system with different types of trains running with the cellular automaton idea. By analyzing such key factors as the maintenance skylight, the proportion of the multispeed running trains, and the distance between adjacent stations and departure intervals, the corresponding running rules for the cellular automaton model are reestablished herewith. By means of this CA model, the program of train running system is designed to analyze the potential impact on railway carrying capacity by various factors; the model can also be implemented to simulate the actual train running process and to draw the train operation diagram by computers. Basically the theory can be applied to organize the train operation on the dedicated passenger lines