Simulation And Railway Timetabling Norms

Speed differences between local trains and intercity or high-speed trains are one of the main causes of the high utilization rate, and therefore of the sensitivity for disturbances for the Dutch railway system. In this paper, a practical case is evaluated, where a situation with large speed differences is compared with a situation with small speed differences. The speed differences are decreased by redistributing the stops over the train services, fewer stops of the local services are compensated by extra stops of the intercity trains. The simulation software (SIMONE) is used to evaluate the different scenarios on punctuality. The program is capable of simulating nationwide networks and communicates with the semi-automatic timetabling program DONS. DIMONE is used both for (practical) comparison of tow or more timetable options, as well as for research purposes.