Facility allocation for rakes at a railway terminus

An important problem in railway operations concerns the parking of trains in the terminus during idle time. The incoming passenger rakes need to be allotted to the limited facilities at the railway terminus without violating the precedence, capacity, and schedule constraints. Regular maintenance activities are essential for maintaining assets in good condition to ensure the reliability and safety of the railway system. Manual creation of this schedule is a challenging task. We propose a two-phase heuristic algorithm for the terminus facility allocation of rakes. We demonstrated the implementation of the algorithm using real-time data of a busy terminus in the Central Railway and could generate a feasible parking schedule for rakes arriving at the terminus. This allocation is summarized in the form of facility occupancy charts which serve as a helpful tool for railway planners. This algorithm facilitates automation of the terminus facility allocation planning, which is manually done at present.