ADMM-based joint rescheduling method for high-speed railway timetabling and platforming in case of uncertain perturbation

The operation of high-speed trains is susceptible to perturbations such as strong winds and heavy snowfall, causing them to deviate from operating schedules. A joint mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model based on the event-activity network is proposed to reschedule the train timetable and platform assignment jointly. Trains traveling in different directions are simultaneously considered in this model, and they can occupy the available reverse platforms in stations. Furthermore, to strengthen the robustness of the rescheduling scheme in case of uncertain perturbations, such as variable temporary speed restrictions caused by changing wind speed, the uncertainty is modeled using scenario-based chance constraints, which are then converted into deterministic constraints. Model predictive control (MPC) divides the entire time horizon into several stages. In each stage, the proposed model is decomposed according to directions. The constraints for trains traveling in different directions are dualized by the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM), which makes the sub-problems decoupled and solvable in parallel in each iteration of ADMM, promoting real-time performance. The real timetable and line data of Beijing–Shanghai HSR are utilized to investigate the effect of the proposed method. Compared to the commonly used strategies, it can significantly reduce delays and the number of affected events. The proposed method also shows relatively high robustness compared to the method in the case of predefined perturbations. It causes fewer conflicts and fewer needs for rescheduling when facing the changing perturbation and gets rescheduling results with higher quality.