2018 21st International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC)

Maui, Hawaii, USA, November 4-7, 2018

Timetable Optimization for Utilization of Regenerative Braking

Energy: A Single Line Case over Istanbul Metro Network
Ibrahim Ethem Demirci and Hilmi Berk Celikoglu, Member, IEEE

Abstract— Energy costs still have a large proportion in Figure 1. Increasing total energy consumption of Istanbul metro lines ([4])
operational expenses in metro lines, even though metro is the
least energy-consuming mode of transport. Recently,
researchers have shown an increased interest in the utilization
of regenerative braking energy (RBE) to reduce the energy
consumption: synchronizing the accelerating and braking
trains is one of the more practical ways of the utilization of
RBE. In this paper, a timetable optimization model is proposed
to pair the accelerating and breaking trains in the operation to
enhance the utilization of RBE. The main objective of the
model proposed is to provide maximum total overlapping time
between breaking and accelerating periods of trains by
adjusting the timetable. In comparison with the existing
methods, the proposed timetable optimization model requires
less modeling information and calculates more train in
cooperation. A case study over Istanbul Metro M4 line is
studied employing a Genetic Algorithm to real operating data.
The simulation results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed
method that the total overlapping time has increased to a Traditional studies have been being conducted to increase
considerable extent in different headway scenarios. energy efficiency in railways, such as smart station design,
I. INTRODUCTION power system optimization, reduced mass of the vehicles,
energy efficient driving strategies, and etc. ([4]). In recent
Rail system projects have been growing due to be the
most effective solutions to transportation problems in years, there has been an increasing interest in utilization of
developing metropolitans in the world. The importance of Regenerative Breaking Energy (RBE), where most of the
railway systems has increased due to its high capacity, studies concentrated on the storage systems ([5]). However,
comfort, punctuality, and etc., where rail-based systems have these storage systems have not been applied considerably
been preferred primarily ([1]): in Istanbul, one of the due to their high cost and some restrictions. Another and the
worldwide metropolitan areas, there existed three rail lines most popular approach is timetable optimization, which
with a total distance of 45 km in the year 2007, while the helps to synchronize the trains to improve the RBE usage by
figure has increased to eight lines with a total distance over pairing the braking and accelerating processes ([6]).
160 km in 2017. Currently the 15 rail lines that are under Therefore, in this paper, a new timetable optimization model
construction are expected to be finalized ‘till the end of 2023
is studied aiming to synchronize the accelerating and
to account for a network-wide spread over 600 km ([2]).
breaking trains in the operation to improve the utilization of
As seen in Fig. 1, the increasing total electricity RBE. The main objective of proposed model is to seek the
consumed by the all metro lines in Istanbul has reached to maximum total overlapping time between breaking and
318 million kWh by the end of 2017 ([3]). Trains consume accelerating periods of trains by adjusting the timetable.
around 50% of the whole rail system energy, that equals
Compared with the existing methods, the proposed timetable
approximately 159 million kWh of energy spent in trains in a
per year. The rest of total gross energy is used for optimization model requires less modeling information and
infrastructure facilities such as, lighting, escalators, lifts, calculates more trains in cooperation using real operation
ventilation, and etc. to provide safe, reliable, and comfortable data within simulation.
operation. Nevertheless, in future, these figures are expected The rest of this paper is organized as follows. In Section
to continue to increase very rapidly. Therefore, the observed II, a brief literature review on the utilization of regenerative
increase in energy consumption makes the energy efficiency braking energy is compiled. Section III presents the
studies very important. methodology and mathematical model to synchronize the
trains for RBE utilization. In section IV, to seek optimal
timetables a genetic algorithm is used to solve the model. The
I. E. Demirci is with the Metro Istanbul Inc., Istanbul, Turkey (e-mail: case study to validate the effectiveness of the model is
demircii16@itu.edu.tr). presented in Section V using data from the Istanbul metro M4
H. B. Celikoglu is with the Civil Engineering Department, Technical Kadıkoy-Tavsantepe metro line. Finally, the conclusions of
University of Istanbul (ITU), Ayazaga Campus, Sariyer, 34469 Turkey. the present case are summarized in Section VI.
(phone: +90-212-2853798; fax: +90-212-2856875; e-mail:
celikoglu@itu.edu.tr).

978-1-7281-0323-5/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 2309

 II. LITERATURE REVIEW
Regenerative breaking turns kinetic energy into electricity
since electric motors have ability to act as generators.
Regenerative braking is widely used in railway systems
during braking phase of trains ([7]). Generally, the
regenerative energy is spent firstly on the train on-board
auxiliary system itself. Then, the surplus energy return to the
power supply line and could be absorbed by other powering
trains within the same power line. It will be wasted unless it
is absorbed by another accelerating train or temporarily
stored. Therefore, in order to improve the utilization of
regenerative braking energy, researchers have studied on
many different methods.
Firstly, in 1985, Asnis et al. ([8]) investigated the energy-
efficient train control problem regarding the RBE for level
track ([19]). In 1998, Gordon and Lehrer ([9]) took into
account the RBE by coordinating multiple trains. They
proposed a method to avoid unnecessary braking and limit
the peak power consumption. Because, they thought to limit
the power peak demand leads to increasing proportion of the
RBE on the total braking process.
Albrecht ([10]) studied the synchronization of
accelerating and breaking trains in timetable to decrease
power peaks and to reach minimum energy consumption in
2004. He proposed a novel model based on dynamic
programming to coordinate the movement of trains by
supplementing additional running time in place of changing
dwell times at stations. The objective of the model was to
distribute the running time optimally within a specified fittest
combination of synchronization time and headway
constraints. To solve the model, Genetic Algorithm was
implemented in a case study over the S-Bahn of Berlin. Also,
Ramos et al. ([11]) studied to reach maximum overlapping
time among braking and accelerating periods of trains by
timetable optimization within the same substation. In their
study, the operational technique of model considered two
trains in adjacent stations.
Regenerative braking is also considered by Nasri et al.
([12]). In order to utilize the RBE they studied with genetic
algorithm on the model of the power supply system. They
simulated a power network with substations to calculate total
electrical energy consumption of the trains. The impact of the
reserve times and headway on the energy consumption is
investigated. They found optimum reserve time range for the
representative system, which considered coordinating two
trains in a station.
Peña-Alcaraz et al. ([13]) developed a scheduling
approach to overlap the acceleration and braking periods of
all trains in the same substation to get minimum energy
consumption. To compute the regeneration saving factor of
each synchronization within the power network, a power
flow model is designed. This mathematical programming
optimization model considered the running time supplements
in place of the changing dwell times. They simulated the
developed model on the case study over Madrid Metro Line 3
and reported that the rate of energy savings was improved 7%
by timetable adjustment.
In 2013, Yang et. al. ([14]) studied a cooperative
scheduling model to pair the braking and accelerating periods
2310
of successive trains for metro systems. The objective function
of the model is the overlapping time and they consider only
successive trains in one direction not all trains in the same
substation. They expressed the model in terms of
mathematical equations and used genetic algorithm to solve
the problem. A simulation of model is studied over the
Beijing Yizhuang metro network and the results illustrated
that overlapping time increase with 22.1 % in peak hours and
15.2% in off-peak hours. Zhao et al. ([15]) developed a
timetable optimization with two-objective model for usage of
RBE. Overlapping time was one of the objective functions.
Likewise ([15]), they consider the synchronizing the only
adjacent trains in one direction.
Yang et al. ([16]) later developed the former model ([14])
to synchronize the trains in the opposite direction at the same
station also decreasing the passenger waiting time. This time,
they focused on coordinate the trains only at the opposite
platforms of the same station but ignored the successive
trains. The model has two objective functions and Genetic
Algorithm is used to find solution. A case study results
illustrated that the model could save energy by 8.8 % and
reduce passenger-waiting time 3.2%. Li and Lo ([17])
proposed an integrated energy-efficient operation model.
They achieved to get optimum speed profile and timetable to
minimize net energy consumption by considering the
headway. One of the parts of the model is timetable that
works to pair regenerative braking and powering trains to
improve using RBE.
In 2015, Yang et al. ([18]) again proposed a scheduling
approach to coordinate the departures and arrivals of all trains
in the same track interval of electricity supply. They
concluded that, in comparison with the current operation
timetable and with the algorithm of former model ([14]), new
model increase to 7.0% and 4.3% saving in energy
consumption respectively. Although X. Yang et al. ([18])
improved their previous models ([14], [16]) by considering
all braking and accelerating trains, it’s a fact that there are
very few studies ([11], [14], [15]) in literature in which the
objective function is the overlap time, considering however
only the successive trains, not all trains, in the same
electricity supply interval.
As seen in the literature, there are several researchers who
studied the utilization of RBE by synchronizing the
accelerating and breaking trains where most of them only
consider successive trains in one direction or opposite
direction at the same station. Therefore, the main motivation
for this paper is to put a new simplified model as an objective
function that focus on overlapping time by taking into
account all trains in the same electricity supply interval so
that it enables to gain maximum total overlapping time and
enhance the utilization of RBE.
III. MODEL FORMULATION
In general, in daily operation of a metro system, trains
start to their trip from the initial station and move along the
right hand direction to the terminal station labelled N.
Subsequently, they change their running direction and move
back to the beginning station labelled 2N. It can be
considered that the up and down direction track as a one
combined track for simplicity. Trains turn again their moving
direction at the initial station to be ready for another cycle. In  Accelerating time of the train, coasting time,
this manner, they complete the one cycle and continue the breaking time between stations are known from the
same period whole day, as can be seen in Fig. 2. The signaling system.
parameters and assumptions are introduced in the following
for a better understanding of the model.  Braking trains generate the regenerative energy and
give back to overhead contact line. Substation
Figure 2. Operation of metro in a running cycle. supply the energy to both track. As seen in Fig.3 all
accelerating trains in the in the same electricity
supply interval use this regenerative energy
immediately. There is no storage unit. Moreover,
transmission losses in power line are neglected since
the distance is very short among the trains in the
same electricity supply interval.
C. Scenario Analysis
At each interstation, the phases of a train movement
consist of three stages: maximum acceleration (MA),
coasting (CO), and maximum braking (MB); and the running
A. Parameters and Symbols time for these stages are certain and speed profile is constant
i Train index for each train. There is no cruising phase in metro lines
I Number of trains; because distance is very short between stations.
n Station index In the accelerating phase, traction power provides
N Number of stations in one direction; necessary acceleration rates so that to reach the maximum
Tc Total cycling time (in seconds); speed. In the coasting phase, train does not spent the traction
energy. The resistance forces reduces the train speed while it
Tr Total running time (in seconds); coast for a time. In the braking phase, in order to stop at the
T ac Total accelerating trains time within the time station, the train brakes to decrease its speed and acts as a
generator and produce regenerative energy that can be used
interval (train.sec);
by other trains since it feeds back to catenary line.
Tbr Total breaking trains time within the time interval
Figure 3. Transmission energy between synchronizing trains
(train.sec);
ai Acceleration rate of train i;
m,k The time interval indexes;
h Headway time;
xn Dwell time at station n;
rn Running time of train in cycle time;
tn Trip time interstation n and n + 1;
a
t n
Accelerating time interstation n and n + 1;
t nb Braking time interstation n and n + 1;
c
t n
Coasting time between stations n and n + 1;
[lT , uT ] Total travel time window;
[lh, uh ] Headway time window; As can be seen in Fig. 3, if there is an accelerating train in
[ln, un ] this phase RBE can be utilized, otherwise it is wasted as a
Dwell time window;
heat by the braking resistors. Therefore, timetable has a great
s Electricity supply interval index effect on the utilization of regenerative energy since it can
S Number of electricity supply interval coordinate the arrival and departure time of trains so that
i ,s Belonging to the same electricity supply interval; energy consumption be reduced.
D. Objective Functions
B. Model Assumptions
The aim of the model is to get maximum total
 All trains are subject to common timetable; overlapping time between the braking and accelerating
interstation trip time and the dwell time on each phases of all trains within the same electricity supply interval.
station are the same for four-car and eight-car train
combinations. Knowing the values of t na , t nc , and t nb the sign of the
acceleration rates of each train is known. Let the total running
 Signaling system controls the trains, manage the time Tr be divided into k parts:
traffic so that it provides the scheduled headway, and
monitor the target speed precisely.

2311
 Tr The genetic algorithm can be implemented to find a
 k , mZ,forallm 1, 2,3...k 
 solution for the simplified model, as given above,
T heuristically, and optimum dwell times at stations can be
In order to detect the whether train i is accelerating or determined.
breaking at the time  mt  , the function can be expressed as E. Timetable Optimization Model
in (2): The objective function P aims to get maximum total
overlapping time by adjusting dwell times in a reasonable
 1, if ai (mt)0 interval respecting the constraints given by (9):


f  ai  mt   0, if ai (mt)0    
  max Toverlap  xn   
-1, if a (mt)0  
 i  
s.t. xn Z,alln1,2,... N  
The function that takes into account the accelerating train  
i, at time  mt  can be expressed as in (3):  
 ln  xn  un ,  alln1,2,... N   
 
0, if ai (mt )0  
 lh h uh 

g ai  mt        

1, if ai (mt )0  2N 
 lTc  ( xn tn )uTc 
The function taking into account the breaking train i,  n 1 
at  mt  can be expressed as in (4): The first constraint states that the decision variable dwell
time values are integers. The second constraint provides the
dwell time ranges are in the upper and lower boundary values
0, if ai (mt )0
 each station. These limits are specified according to real

h ai  mt       passenger density at the each station. Taking into account the
1,  if  ai (mt )0 practical dwell time reduces the difficulty of the timetable
optimization while increasing the satisfaction rate of the
In order to determine if the trains are fed in the same passengers. The third constraint maintains the headway in a
electricity supply interval, (5) can be written: reasonable range keeping as well the safety distance between
the successive trains. Last constraint preserves the cycle of
1,if the train iis atsubstations the timetable that all the trains complete the one cyclic in the

i,s  mt      total travel time limits.
0,otherwise
IV. SOLUTION ALGORITHM
Total accelerating trains time in the same electricity
In the purpose of getting optimum results precisely and
supply interval at  mt  can be obtained as given in (6): efficiently in the proposed timetable optimization method, a
S I
Genetic Algorithm (GA) is implemented. Also according to
the literature, the main and the mostly preferred solution
ac  
s 1 i 1
 f  ai  mt    g ai  mt   s,i  mt    methods in timetable optimization for utilization of
regenerative energy are simulation and genetic algorithms
Total breaking trains time in the same electricity supply ([20]).
interval at  mt  can be obtained as given in (7):
V. NUMERICAL EXAMPLE WITH CASE STUDY
S I
The Kadıkoy-Tavsantepe line M4, which is one of the
br   f  a  mt   h a  mt  
s 1 i 1
i i s ,i  mt    lines in Istanbul metro network with 19 stations and 25.3 km
track length, has been being operated since 2012. There are
In general, in a given running time Tr , the total 144 cars, and generally, four-car units compose a single train
set, which can be also coupled to eight car units.
overlapping time Toverlap of the all train is:
The cyclic period of the timetable is 4977 seconds, which
 S I
 consist of 4097 seconds of running time, 760 seconds of

k
 
 s 1 i 1
f  ai  mt    g ai  mt   s,i  mt ,

dwell time, and 120-seconds of turn-around time.
Furthermore, the daily average total passenger number is

m1

 min  
S I
 

 around 309524. The passenger demand varies in hours and
come up to 36000 in peak hours as seen Fig. 4. To cope with
 
 s 1 i 1
f  ai  mt    h ai  mt   s,i  mt  

the density of the passenger demand, operation is provided
with a mixed train configuration (4-car and 8-car) and five
different headways in a day. For example: 18 set train

2312
consists of 12 set (8-car) and 6 set (4-car) in service with 273 TABLE I. CURRENT VS. OPTIMAL TIMETABLE IN PEAK HOURS
seconds of headway during peak hours (07:00-09:30 and Current Timetable Optimal Timetable
15:45- 20:45) where 10 set train consists of 5 set (4-car) and Time Period: 15:45-
Up Down Up Down
20:45
5 set (8-car) with 480 seconds of headway in off-peak hours Direction Direction Direction Direction
(06:00- 08:00). The trip time at interstation does not change. Turn-around time 120 120
Total Accelerating Time 88440 88440
Figure 4. Within-day variation of passanger demand Total Breaking Time 78993 78993
Total Overlapping Time 43668 50813
Overlap Percentage 55% 64%

After optimization, total cyclic time decreased from 4977

seconds to 4969 seconds within the limitations.

TABLE II. CURRENT VS. OPTIMAL TIMETABLE IN PEAK HOURS

Scenario Headway Fleet size Overlap Percentage

Total
Time- Headway 4- 8- After
Train Current
Period (sec.) car car Optimization
set

06:00-07:32 379 6 7 13 57% 66%

Solution algorithm is coded in Visual Studio 2017
software platform under the Windows 8.1 operating system
of a notebook with 2.4-GHz processor speed and 8-GB
memory size. The calculation times varied around 2-3
seconds.
As an example, to apply the proposed algorithm, peak-
hour scenario between 15:45-20:45 hours is considered. GA
parameters considered are: population size = 30, crossover
probability = 0.85, mutation probability= 0.85, and maximum
generation= 30. Parameters considered regarding the test
configuration are: train set is 18, headway is 273 seconds
with the lower 10 seconds and upper 10 seconds in total cycle
time of 4997 seconds constraints. Within the 18000 seconds
of simulation time, the total overlapping time increased to
50813 seconds as seen in Fig. 5 by applying GA.
Figure 5. Genetic Algorithm optimization in peak hours
As seen in Table I, the overlapping time percentage
reached to 50813 seconds, 64% in optimal timetable, while it
was 43688 seconds and 55% previously in current timetable
under operation. Therefore, the proposed model has enhanced
the total overlapping time with around 16% in peak hours.
07:32-09:37 273 6 12 18 55% 64%
09:37-15:44 351 7 7 14 46% 60%
15:44-20:41 273 6 12 18 55% 64%
20:41-23:59 492 5 5 10 55% 64%
As can be seen in Table II, to satisfy the passenger
demand, trains are operated with five different headway
scenarios within the mixed 4-car and 8-car combinations. The
timetable for whole day headway scenarios are optimized by
applying the proposed algorithm. For example, between
09:37 and 15:44, total 14-train set are operated with the 351-
seconds headway. After timetable optimization, total
overlapping percentage increased to 60% from 46%, which
means that proposed algorithm leads to 30% of total overlap
time improvement compared to the current operation.
Likewise, optimization for the other time-periods increased
the total overlapping time by varying ratios from 14% to
30%. Overall, as shown in Table II, the results indicate the
effectiveness of the proposed model.
VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a timetable optimization model is
developed that can increase the total overlapping time
between breaking and accelerating trains by taking into
account all the trains in the same electric supply interval. To
illustrate the efficiency of the proposed model, a case study
over Istanbul M4 Metro line with real operation data is
studied. The results show that the proposed model can
maximize total overlapping time to a considerable extent in
different headway scenarios. The model presented in this
paper can be considered as a decision support tool that for
the operator who tries to prepare optimal timetables at the
control center of metro. Future directions of our interest are
on timetable optimization that: i- comparative evaluations
with the exact solution of the optimization problem are
sought; and, ii- takes transmission losses and the converter
efficiency into account.

2313
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors of the paper acknowledge the collaboration
of Metro Istanbul in providing data and allowing for test
facilities under operation.

REFERENCES
[1] I. E. Demirci, “Optimizing of railway signalling systems for high
passenger capacity (in Turkish),” M.S. thesis, Dept. Transp. Eng.,
Bahcesehir Univ., Istanbul, Turkey, 2014.
[2] [Online]. Available: http://www.istanbulunmetrosu.com
[3] I. Adıyıl, “Total energy consumption report for the Metro Istanbul in
2017 (in Turkish),” Metro Istanbul. Inc., Istanbul, Turkey, Tech. Rep.,
2018.
[4] A. González-Gil, R. Palacin, P. Batty, and J. P. Powell, “A systems
approach to reduce urban rail energy consumption,” Energy Convers
Manage., vol. 80, pp. 509–524, Apr. 2014.
[5] X. Yang, X. Li, B. Ning, and T. Tang, “A Survey on Energy-Efficient
Train Operation for Urban Rail Transit,” IEEE Trans. Intell. Transp.
Syst., vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 2–13, Jan. 2016.
[6] X. Sun, H. Lu, and H. Dong, “Energy-Efficient Train Control by
Multi-Train Dynamic Cooperation,” IEEE Trans. Intell. Transp. Syst.,
vol. 18, no. 11, pp. 3114–3121, Nov. 2017.
[7] A. González-Gil, R. Palacin, and P. Batty, “Sustainable urban rail
systems: Strategies and technologies for optimal management of
regenerative braking energy,” Energy Convers. Manage., vol. 75, pp.
374–388, Nov. 2013.
[8] I. A. Asnis, A. V. Dmitruk, and N. P. Osmolovskii, “Solution of the
problem of the energetically optimal control of the motion of a train
by the maximum principle,” USSR Comput. Math. Math. Phys., vol.
25, no. 6, pp. 37–44, 1985.
[9] S. P. Gordon and D. G. Lehrer, “Coordinated train control and energy
management control strategies,” in Proc. ASME/IEEE Joint Railroad
Conf., Philadelphia, PA, USA, Apr. 1998, pp. 165–176.
[10] T. Albrecht, “Reducing Power Peaks and Energy Consumption in Rail
Transit Systems by Simultaneous Train Running Time Control,”
Wessex, U.K.: WIT Press, Aug. 2004, pp. 885–894.
[11] A. Nasri, M. F. Moghadam, and H. Mokhtari, “Timetable optimization
for maximum usage of regenerative energy of braking in electrical
railway systems,” in Proc. Int. Symp. Power Electron., Elect. Drives,
Automat. Motion, 2010, pp. 1218–1221.
[12] A. Ramos, M. Pena, A. Fernández-Cardador, and A. P. Cucala,
“Mathematical programming approach to underground timetabling
problem for maximizing time synchronization,” in Proc. Inte. Conf.
Ind. Eng. Ind. Manage., Madrid, Spain, Sep. 2007, pp. 88–95.
[13] M. Peña-Alcaraz, A. Fernández, A. P. Cucala, A. Ramos, and R. R.
Pecharromán, “Optimal underground timetable design based on power
flow for maximizing the use of regenerative-braking energy,” Proc.
Inst. Mech. Eng., Part F: J. Rail Rapid Transit, vol. 226, no. 4, pp.
397–408, 2012.
[14] X. Yang, X. Li, Z. Gao, H. Wang, and T. Tang, “A cooperative
scheduling model for timetable optimization in subway systems,”
IEEE Trans. Intell. Transp. Syst., vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 438–447, Mar.
2013.
[15] L. Zhao, K. Li, and S. Su, “A multi-objective timetable optimization
model for subway systems,” in Proc. Int. Conf. Elect. Inf. Technol.
Rail Transp., Changchun, China, Nov. 2013, pp. 557–565.
[16] X. Yang, B. Ning, X. Li, and T. Tang, “A two-objective timetable
optimization model in subway systems,” IEEE Trans. Intell. Transp.
Syst., vol. 15, no. 5, pp. 1913–1921, Oct. 2014.
[17] X. Li and H. K. Lo, “An energy-efficient scheduling and speed control
approach for metro rail operations,” Transp. Res. Part B: Methodol.,
vol. 64, pp. 73–89, March 2014.
[18] X. Yang, A. Chen, X. Li, B. Ning, and T. Tang, “An energy-efficient
scheduling approach to improve the utilization of regenerative energy
for metro rail systems,” Transp. Res. Part C: Emerging Technol., vol.
57, pp. 13–29, Aug. 2015.
[19] G. Scheepmaker, R. Goverde, and L. Kroon, “Review of energy-
efficient train control and timetabling,” Eur. J. of Operational Res.,
vol. 257, pp. 355-376, Mar. 2017.

2314