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Integrated Overnight Train Scheduling and Maintenance Planning for High-

Speed Railway Lines

Article  in  Transportation Research Record Journal of the Transportation Research Board · December 2020
DOI: 10.1177/0361198120968830

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 Journal Title
XX(X):1–14
Integrated Over-night Train Scheduling c The Author(s) 2020
Reprints and permission:
and Maintenance Planning for sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/ToBeAssigned

High-speed Railway Lines www.sagepub.com/

SAGE

Dian Wang1 , Shuguang Zhan1,2,3 , Qiyuan Peng1,2,3 and Wentao Zhou1

Abstract
Over-night high-speed trains are very popular and convenient for passengers in countries with a large territory like
China. However, the over-night high-speed train operation is inevitably conflict with the evening regular maintenance.
We focus on both over-night high-speed train scheduling and maintenance planning to eliminate the conflict. Because
part of day-time high-speed trains that run early in the morning or late in the evening also interact with over-night
high-speed trains and maintenance, we also allow to slightly reschedule them to improve both the quality of over-night
train timetable and the maintenance plan. Our integrated optimization problem is formulated as a mixed integer linear
programming model, which can be solved efficiently by commercial solver CPLEX. Finally, we validate our model on a
large real-world case constructed based on the Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway line in China.

Keywords
High-speed railway, over-night train scheduling, railway maintenance planning, mixed integer linear programming

Introduction is finished, leading to conflicts between over-night trains

and the maintenance. To eliminate these conflicts, the
High-speed railway network expands fast in the world,
maintenance time of some segments is compressed to less
especially in China during the past 10 years. According to
than 4 hours, and the maintenance might be postponed, e.g.,
the short-term plan of Chinese high-speed railway, the total
the maintenance of the segment tracks between stations m2
length of high-speed railway will reach 30,000 km in the year
and m3 in Figure 1 continues after 06:00. Therefore, over-
of 2020, and most cities with a population above 500,000 will
night trains can use the spare time between the maintenance
be served by high-speed railway. Although high-speed trains
of two consecutive railway segments, which is shown by G in
run very fast with a speed of 250∼350km/h in China, it may
Figure 1. Note that the end time of maintenance is restricted
take a long time to travel from one city to another due to the
by the trains operated in the early morning, e.g., day-time
large size of the country. There are more than 1,000 origin
regular trains r3 and r4 in Figure 1.
and destination pairs in China, among which 328 pairs are
longer than 2,000 km. For such a long OD pair, it is quite 22:00 00:00 06:00 08:00
m1 m1
preferable to operate over-night high-speed trains (trains that i1 i2
r1 o1 o3 Maintenance
o2 o4 r3
depart during 19:00-22:00 in the evening and arrive during m2 m2
o1 o3 o2 o4 i1 r4
06:00-08:00 in the next morning), so that passengers do not G r3
i4
spend their daytime on these trains. Besides, the over-night m3 m3
i3 o1 o3 r4
r2 o2 o4
train can provide higher level of service because it is a sleeper i4
m4 m4
train and passengers can have a good sleep and start their regular train over-night train inspection train
work in the next morning. Until now, 26 over-night high-
speed trains are operated on the Chinese high-speed railway Figure 1. A sample train timetable and maintenance plan
network. These trains are quite popular, and all the tickets
of the over-night trains operating on the Beijing-Guangzhou Because the maintenance time of some segment tracks
high-speed railway line in China are sold out several days is compressed (less than 4 hours), the railway maintenance
before the planned departure time from the ticket booking staffs cannot finish all the required maintenance tasks during
website (https://www.12306.cn/index/).
Though the over-night high-speed trains are convenient
1 School of Transportation and Logistics, Southwest Jiaotong University,
and popular for passengers, they also bring out some
problems. One of the most important issues is that the over- Chengdu, Sichuan, China
2 National United Engineering Laboratory of Integrated and Intelligent
night trains are conflict with the regular evening maintenance Transportation, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
and the day-time regular trains operated in the late evening 3 National Engineering Laboratory of Integrated Transportation Big

and early morning. To ensure the safety of train operations, Data Application Technology, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu,
maintenance is taken every evening normally during 00:00 to Sichuan, China
06:00 in the Chinese high-speed railway and lasts for 4 hours Corresponding author:
in principle. During the maintenance of a railway segment, Shuguang Zhan
trains cannot run on the segment until the maintenance Email: shuguangzhan@my.swjtu.edu.cn

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2 Journal Title XX(X)
the evening, and the train operation safety cannot be well
ensured. To this end, over-night trains can only operate on
a certain number of days instead of every day. Currently,
the Chinese high-speed railway operators only operate over-
night high-speed trains on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and
Monday every week with a compressed maintenance time,
and maintenance can take a longer time during other three
days to finish all the required maintenance tasks in the whole
week. Although the whole maintenance tasks in a week are
finished, over-night trains cannot operate from Tuesday to
Thursday. In addition, the spare time during two consecutive
segments by compressing maintenance time is limited, and
only a limited number of over-night trains can operate by
using this spare time on the days when over-night trains are
operated. Thus, the capacity of over-night trains cannot meet
the growing passengers’ requirement.
Theoretically two main strategies may be available to
solve the conflict between over-night high-speed train
operation and maintenance tasks. The first one (called
waiting strategy) is that when a segment is under
maintenance, trains stop at stations before the maintenance
location to wait for the end of the maintenance. The
second one (called switching strategy) is to use the parallel
conventional railway lines (normally of a lower design
speed) to organize high-speed trains during the maintenance.
That is, if a segment of a high-speed railway line is under
maintenance, over-night high-speed trains can switch to
run on the conventional line. And then they can either
keep running on the conventional line to their destination
or switch back to the high-speed railway line after the
maintenance is finished. We refer to 1 for details about these
two strategies. However, because the standard and the control
system of the conventional railway lines are quite different
from those of the high-speed railway lines, high-speed trains
are not allowed to switch to conventional lines in practice
on Chinese railway until now. Therefore, in this research we
focus on the waiting strategy. Under this strategy, one of the
main decisions is how to stop high-speed trains during the
maintenance.
The integrated over-night train scheduling and mainte-
nance planning (ITSMP) problem is currently addressed by
the Chinese railway operators manually based on experi-
ence with the help of a visualize tool, and it has attracted
attention among the academia in recent years. In this paper,
we investigate the ITSMP problem on Chinese high-speed
railway lines by using the operations research methods, with
the aims of obtaining good quality solutions and releasing
the solution burden of the railway operators. The novelty
of our work lies on the following considerations to reflect
the practical requirement as much as possible. First, we
consider all of the stations along a railway line, because the
capacity of each station affects the practical feasibility of the
obtained solution. Considering that there are usually a few
tracks in some of the stations along a high-speed railway
line, we suppose that over-night trains could occupy a station
track which is usually utilized by trains in the opposite
direction (coincide with the practice). Second, because the
day-time regular trains that run late in the evening before
the maintenance and early in the next morning just after the
maintenance (e.g., trains r1 ∼r4 in Figure 1) interact with the
over-night high-speed trains, we also consider these regular
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trains and allow to reasonably revise them, so that a better
train timetable can be obtained. Third, after the maintenance
of each segment track, a comprehensive inspection train
(e.g., trains i1 ∼i4 in Figure 1) must be operated before the
regular and over-night trains in China to ensure the safety
of train operations. Thus, we consider the comprehensive
inspection trains as well. Fourth, because the maintenance
of each segment requires a continuous period of time, we
do not allow to separate the maintenance time of a segment.
As it is preferred to do the maintenance of consecutive
segments simultaneously to facilitate the maintenance tasks,
the difference of the maintenance start time of consecutive
segments is considered and minimized in this study. Overall,
we will investigate when the considered (day-time regular,
over-night, and inspection) trains will arrive at and depart
from the stations along their planned path, which station
track is used to stop each of the considered train, and when
to start the maintenance on each segment, with the aim of
optimizing particular objectives.
The contributions of this paper are threefold. First, we
investigate the ITSMP problem with considerations of the
above practical requirements, so that the train timetable
and maintenance plan obtained in this paper are practically
acceptable. Second, we formulate the investigated problem
as a novel mixed integer linear programming (MILP)
model, in which all of the above practical requirements are
addressed. The proposed model can be efficiently solved by
commercial solvers, and tight lower bounds can be found to
assess the quality of a (practical) feasible solution. Third,
a large realistic instance, constructed based on one of the
longest and busiest real-world high-speed railway lines in
China, is used to test the capability of our model. The
benefit of applying new electric multiple units (EMUs) is
also investigated, which is motivated by our project from
the CRRC Tangshan Corporation Limited to explore the
probability of operating over-night trains every evening by
using new high-speed EMUs.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows.
Section Literature review gives the related literature review.
We briefly describe our problem in Section Problem
description and formulate it as a MILP model in Section
Model formulation. Section Case study presents the
computational results, and we finally conclude this research
and discuss some future research directions in Section
Conclusions.
Literature review
Our problem needs to schedule the over-night trains and
reschedule the day-time regular trains if necessary while
the regular maintenance is implemented in the evening.
In the macroscopic perspective, the train scheduling and
rescheduling problems mainly lie on determining the arrival
and departure times of trains at their visited stations. Until
now, the train scheduling and rescheduling problems have
received extensive attentions. Interested readers can refer
to 2–4 for train scheduling and to 5,6 for train rescheduling.
Among the previous train scheduling/rescheduling papers,
those focusing on scheduling additional trains on an existing
timetable are most relevant to our study. Trains in the
existing timetable can be either unchanged 7 or changed 8–11 .
Wang, Zhan, Peng and Zhou
In these previous studies, few of them consider the additional
accelerating and decelerating times 10,11 and rerouting of
trains at visited stations 7,11 . However, to obtain a high-
quality over-night train schedule, day-time regular trains are
allowed to be reasonably revised in our problem. Besides,
the additional accelerating and decelerating times as well as
the route of trains at stations need to be exactly considered to
improve the practical feasibility of the obtained timetable.
We also need to schedule the maintenances which cause
unavailability of segment tracks in some periods. Railway
infrastructure maintenance is a complex task, and it is
important for maintenance budget and train operations.
Though some previous papers have solved the maintenance
planning problem, most of them only focus on optimizing
the maintenance plan, and trains are usually scheduled at a
later stage 12 . To the best of our knowledge, few contributions
have been made to deal with how to organize trains due to the
unavailability of tracks caused by maintenances. Generally,
the previous research focusing on both maintenance planning
and train scheduling can be classified into three categories:
fixed timetable and variable maintenance plan 13–15 , fixed
maintenance plan and variable timetable 16–20 , and variable
maintenance plan and variable timetable 21–26 . Different from
the railways in Australia and Europe, the train scheduling
and maintenance planning are implemented by the same
railway operator in China, which makes it possible and
necessary to simultaneously schedule maintenance plan and
train schedule to obtain better results. Therefore, our problem
belongs to the third category, i.e., variable maintenance plan
and variable timetable.
In the most relevant studies that focus on variable
maintenance plan and variable timetable, 21 optimized the
train schedule and maintenance of a single-track railway
network. The maintenance task can be interrupted and
arranged in several time slots. Therefore, the influence of
maintenance on train operations can be reduced. 22 focused
on the integrated problem for a railway network with both
single-track and double-track lines. They allowed to cancel
some trains in the planned timetable. Similarly, 23 and 24
allowed to split the maintenance task and cancel some trains
in the planned timetable simultaneously. The considered
situations in the above studies are different from that in
Chinese high-speed railway, and their methods are not able
to be directly used to solve our investigated problem. 25 and 26
optimized train schedule and infrastructure maintenance plan
from a microscopic perspective. Because there are usually
too many variables and constraints in a microscopic model,
it is quite difficult to be applied to a large real-world case. In
addition, the model in 25 can be large when a fine granularity
of seconds is used as the time interval. However, a fine
granularity is necessary for high-speed railways. When it
comes to adding extra over-night high-speed trains into
the existing train timetable while considering maintenance,
only 1 studied this problem for Chinese high-speed railway
lines. They introduced three strategies to organize over-
night high-speed trains. Over-night high-speed trains were
allowed to switch to parallel conventional railway lines when
the high-speed railway segment was under maintenance.
However, this is not currently allowed on Chinese railway.
Besides, they only consider the station capacity of some
stations. To ensure the feasibility of train operations,
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3
however, the capacity of every station should be checked. In
addition, considering that synchronous maintenance window
is more convenient for maintenance, it is better to start the
maintenance of several consecutive sections at the same time.
In other words, the difference of the maintenance start time
of consecutive segments should be minimized, which is out
of consideration in 1 . Finally, 1 assumed that all the regular
day-time high-speed trains are fixed when inserting the over-
night high-speed trains. But the interaction between a regular
day-time high-speed train and an over-night high-speed train
indeed exists. Thus, it is possible to revise the schedule of
some day-time high-speed trains a little bit (as done in our
work) to improve the quality of the over-night high-speed
train timetable and the maintenance plan.
Problem description
We focus on double-track high-speed railway lines. Each
segment track is used by trains in one direction, and a station
track can be used by trains in both directions. Our problem
mainly contains three parts. One is train scheduling, another
is regular maintenance planning on high-speed railways, and
the third is how to integrate the former two parts. Hence, we
explain our problem from three aspects in detail.
Over-night high-speed train scheduling
As mentioned previously, we need to operate over-night
high-speed trains to meet the passengers’ demand due
to large territory in China. Over-night high-speed trains
normally operate on a high-speed railway line with a length
of about 2,000 km. Trains depart from a large city in the
evening between 19:00 and 22:00, and finally arrive at
another large city in the next morning between 06:00 and
08:00, with a limited number of stops in some intermediate
stations.
To schedule over-night high-speed trains, there are several
key issues to be considered. First, we need to determine
which high-speed railway line is suitable to operate this
kind of trains considering both the appropriate departure and
arrival times and the passengers’ demand. Second, we need
to determine how many trains should be operated on each
line every day with limited line capacity. Third, the stopping
pattern (to board and alight passengers) of each train should
be carefully designed so that it is convenient for passengers
to travel by these trains. Normally, over-night trains do not
have planned stops to board and alight passengers during
01:00 and 05:00. However, they might have to stop to wait
for the maintenance. Fourth, the departure and arrival time
of each train at each station as well as the station track to be
occupied should be decided without any conflict with others.
Fifth, because over-night trains partly run together with day-
time regular trains and comprehensive inspection trains, the
conflict among these trains should be strictly eliminated.
Considering that the number of over-night trains, their
paths and their planned stopping patterns are predetermined
before making the detailed train timetable and maintenance
plan in China, they are regarded as input in our study. The
timetable of day-time regular trains is also given and we try
to add over-night trains to the planned timetable. To improve
the quality of over-night train timetable and maintenance
plan, we allow to slightly revise the timetable of day-time
4 Journal Title XX(X)
regular trains. Here, only the regular trains operated in the
late evening and early morning are considered to be revised
as they might be affected by over-night trains, and the
others are unchangeable to ensure feasibility of the obtained
solutions within the whole day.
Maintenance planning on high-speed railway
Maintenance activities on a high-speed railway line mainly
refer to track maintenance, power-supply maintenance,
signaling-system maintenance and other fixed equipment
maintenance 1 . To ensure the safety of train operations,
maintenance should be done every evening, and 4 hours is
required to fully inspect and repair the involved facilities
on the Chinese high-speed railway. When a segment track
is under maintenance, no train is allowed to enter it. Thus,
the maintenance is usually taken between 00:00 and 06:00
because day-time regular trains do not operate during this
time period on the Chinese high-speed railway. Different
from the low-speed railway, as the speed of a high-speed train
is very high, when one segment track is under maintenance,
the other parallel track in the same segment is not allowed
to be used for train operation due to safety reasons.
Instead, maintenance is taken on both tracks in a segment
simultaneously for a double-track high-speed railway.
In this situation, we have two types of maintenance win-
dows: synchronous maintenance window and asynchronous
maintenance window. The former is that all tracks in all
segments of a high-speed railway line start and end the main-
tenance at the same time. This type of maintenance window
is convenient and safe for maintenance tasks. However, it not
only significantly affects the operation of over-night trains
as they need to wait for a long time, but also increases
passengers’ travel time. The latter is to divide the whole
railway line into several maintenance sections, each of which
contains at least one segment between two stations. Differ-
ent maintenance sections can start maintenance at different
times, see in Figure 1. This type of maintenance window can
reduce the waiting time of over-night trains, but might affect
the maintenance efficiency and safety. The maintenance of
the whole railway line will last for a longer time as well.
Currently, the second type of maintenance window is applied
on the Chinese high-speed railway because it is quite flexible.
Therefore, our research focuses on the second type. The
maintenance window should be well organized to facilitate
both the maintenance tasks and over-night train operations. It
is preferred to simultaneously start the maintenance of con-
secutive segments in the maintenance aspect. Overall, in the
maintenance planning problem, we mainly need to determine
how many maintenance sections a high-speed railway line
should be divided into, and the start time of maintenance
for each segment, so as to minimize the influence of the
maintenance on over-night train operations and to facilitate
maintenance tasks as much as possible.
Integrated over-night train scheduling and
maintenance planning
Because the time for maintenance and that for over-night
train operations are overlapping, we should appropriately
arrange these two tasks. As mentioned previously, if one
segment track is under maintenance, over-night trains that
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want to pass this track have to stop at previous stations to
wait until the end of the maintenance. Therefore, we need to
decide the order of trains passing each segment track and the
start time of its maintenance. In addition, due to the limited
station capacity, we also need to decide which train should
stop at which station track to wait for the maintenance. Our
goal is to appropriately arrange the required maintenance
tasks and minimize the influence of maintenance on train
operations.
Model formulation
Notation
We formulate the ITSMP problem as a mixed integer linear
programming (MILP) model in this section. In what follows,
the over-night train, the regular train and the inspection
train represent the over-night high-speed train, the day-time
regular high-speed train and the comprehensive inspection
train, respectively. The notations used in the model are
explained in Tables 1 and 2.
Objective function
Based on problem definition, we need to simultaneously
minimize the total travel time of over-night trains, the total
deviation of regular trains from the planned timetable, and
the total absolute difference between maintenance start times
of consecutive segments. We only focus on downstream
segment tracks as the maintenances are simultaneously taken
on both tracks in a segment. The objective function is as
follows.
X X X
min β1 · (yisi − xioi ) + β2 · (δim + εim )
i∈T1 i∈T2 m∈Ai
X
+ β3 · αmn
(m,n)∈E|n6=|S|
(1)
The first part of the objective function is the total travel
time of over-night trains, where (yisi − xioi ) represents
the travel time of train i ∈ T1 . The second part is the
total absolute arrival and departure deviation of the regular
trains to the planned timetable, and the third part is the
total absolute difference between the maintenance start
times of consecutive segments. The weights β1 ∼β3 can be
determined by the decision makers (e.g., railway operators)
based on their preference, where β1 + β2 + β3 = 1.
Constraints
Train dwell and running constraints. To maintain practical
feasibility of train timetable, specified train dwell and
running requirements at visited stations and segment tracks
should be strictly respected, which are as follows.
yim − xim ≥ bim ∀i ∈ T, ∀m ∈ Ai (2)
min
rimn + qi1 · wim + qi2 · win ≤ xin − yim
(3)
∀i ∈ T, ∀(m, n) ∈ Bi
max
xin − yim ≤ rimn + qi1 · wim + qi2 · win
(4)
∀i ∈ T, ∀(m, n) ∈ Bi
Wang, Zhan, Peng and Zhou 5

Table 1. Definition of Sets, Indices and Parameters Table 2. Definition of Decision Variables
Notations Description Notations Description
Sets xim Nonnegative integer variable, represents the actual arrival
S Set of stations. Stations are indexed sequentially by the time of train i ∈ T at station m ∈ Ai .
downstream direction, S = {1, 2, · · · , |S|}, where |S| yim Nonnegative integer variable, represents the actual depar-
is the total number of stations. ture time of train i ∈ T at station m ∈ Ai .
T Set of trains, T = T1 ∪ T2 ∪ T3 , T = wim Binary variable, 1 if train i ∈ T stops at station m ∈ Ai ;
{1, 2, . . . , |T |}. 0 otherwise.
T1 , T2 , T3 Set of over-night trains, regular trains and inspection uijmn Binary variable, for every two trains i and j (ϕij = 0,
trains, respectively. Each type of trains is further i < j) and every segment track (m, n) ∈ Bi ∩ Bj , 1 if
composed of downstream trains and upstream trains. the actual departure time of train i to enter the segment
E Set of segment tracks which consists of downstream track is earlier than that of train j; 0 otherwise.
segment tracks and upstream segment tracks. pijm Binary variable, for every two trains i and j (i 6= j) and
Ai Set of stations visited by train i ∈ T based on the every station m ∈ Ai ∩ Aj , 1 if the actual departure time
planned path of the train, Ai ⊂ S. of train i at the station is earlier than the actual arrival time
Bi Set of segment tracks visited by train i ∈ T based on of train j at the station; 0 otherwise.
the planned path of the train, Bi ⊂ E. zmn Nonnegative integer variable, represents the maintenance
Km Set of station tracks at station m ∈ S. It contains the start time of segment track (m, n) ∈ E.
downstream track set Km down and the upstream track eimn Binary variable, for each train i ∈ T and each segment
up down and K up are further composed of a
set Km . Km m track (m, n) ∈ Bi , 1 if the actual arrival time of train i
main track and several platform tracks. at station n is not later than the maintenance start time of
rev
Kim Set of station tracks at station m ∈ Ai which are the segment track; 0 otherwise.
normally used by trains in a direction opposite to that vimk Binary variable, 1 if train i occupies station track k ∈ Km
of train i ∈ T . at station m ∈ Ai ; 0 otherwise.
Kmmain Set of main tracks at station m ∈ S, Km main ⊂ K αmn Nonnegative continuous variable, represents the absolute
m
Indices difference between the maintenance start time of down-
m0 , m, n, n0 Index of stations, m0 ∈ S, m ∈ S, n ∈ S, n0 ∈ S, stream segment track (m, n) ∈ E and its successor down-
m0 6= m 6= n 6= n0 . stream segment track (n, n0 ).
(m, n) Index of segment tracks, (m, n) ∈ E. If m < n, it is a δim Nonnegative continuous variable, represents the absolute
downstream segment track, otherwise, an upstream one. deviation of the actual arrival time of regular train i ∈ T2
i, j Index of trains, i ∈ T , j ∈ T , i 6= j. at station m ∈ Ai to the planned arrival time.
k Index of station tracks. εim Nonnegative continuous variable, represents the absolute
Parameters deviation of the actual departure time of regular train i ∈
oi , s i Origin and destination station of train i ∈ T . T2 at station m ∈ Ai to the planned departure time.
ϕij Binary constant, 1 if trains i ∈ T and j ∈ T have
different running directions; 0 otherwise.
bim Minimum dwell time of train i ∈ T at station m ∈ Ai . wim ≤ yim − xim ≤ M · wim ∀i ∈ T, ∀m ∈ Ai (7)
If train i does not stop at the station, it equals to 0.
aear lat
im , aim Earliest and latest arrival time of train i ∈ T at station δim ≥ xim − asch
im , δim ≥ asch
im − xim
m ∈ Ai , respectively. (8)
dear lat Earliest and latest departure time of train i ∈ T at ∀i ∈ T2 , ∀m ∈ Ai
im , dim
station m ∈ Ai , respectively.
asch sch Scheduled arrival and departure time of train i ∈ T2 at
εim ≥ yim − dsch sch
im , εim ≥ dim − yim
im , dim (9)
station m ∈ Ai , respectively. ∀i ∈ T2 , ∀m ∈ Ai
max , r min
rimn Maximum and minimum running time of train i ∈ T
imn
on segment track (m, n) ∈ Bi , respectively. Constraint (2) means that the actual dwell time of each
tmn Maintenance duration time of segment track (m, n) ∈ train at each visited station should be no less than the
E. minimum dwell time. Constraints (3)-(4) represent that the
ear , f lat
fmn Earliest and latest maintenance start time of segment
mn actual running time of each train on each passed segment
track (m, n) ∈ E.
hm Minimum departure headway between two trains to
track should be within a reasonable range which depends on
1
enter the same segment track from station m ∈ S in the train type mainly distinguished by its speed grade. Here,
the same direction. the additional accelerating and decelerating times are exactly
hm
2 Minimum arrival headway between two trains to arrive considered once a train stops at a station. Constraints (5)-
at station m ∈ S from the same segment track in the (6) ensure that the actual arrival and departure time of each
same direction.
hm Minimum departure-arrival headway between two
train at each visited station is within a reasonable arrival and
3
trains to leave and arrive at station m ∈ S. departure time slot respectively, to maintain the train service
hm
4 Minimum arrival-departure headway between two level for passengers. Here, the time slot of an over-night train
trains to arrive at and leave station m ∈ S. i ∈ T1 at an intermediate station m ∈ Ai \ {oi , si } can be
qi1 , qi2 Additional accelerating and decelerating time of train determined by that at the origin/destination stations and the
i ∈ T if it stops at a visited station.
∆1 Minimum headway between the leaving time of a train
minimum/maximum segment running time. We note that, for
from a segment track and its maintenance start time. each passenger train i ∈ T1 ∪ T2 and each station m ∈ Ai ,
∆2 Minimum headway between the maintenance end time our model can consider the passengers’ demand arising from
of a segment track and the entering time of a train to it. different time periods, by reasonably setting the time slot
M Large positive constant for big-M constraints. [dear lat
im , dim ] according to passengers’ demand. Constraint (7)
reflects the relationship between decision variables xim , yim
and wim . Specifically, if xim = yim , train i does not stop at
aear lat
im ≤ xim ≤ aim ∀i ∈ T, ∀m ∈ Ai (5) station m ∈ Ai and we have wim = 0; otherwise, the train
must stop at the station and wim = 1 according to constraint
dear lat
im ≤ yim ≤ dim ∀i ∈ T, ∀m ∈ Ai (6) (2). Constraints (8)-(9) calculate the absolute deviation of

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6 Journal Title XX(X)
each regular train’s actual arrival and departure time at each
visited station to its planned time, respectively.
Train headway constraints. Series of headway between two
trains should be fulfilled to prevent potential conflicts at
stations and on segment tracks. We take the station illustrated
in Figure 2 as an example to explain different types of
headways. The layout of station m is exhibited by Figure
2(a), where double crossovers are set behind and in front
of the station, so that a train can arrive at each track of
the station. For example, downstream train i can occupy
upstream main track 2 or platform track 4 if both of the
two downstream tracks (i.e., main track 1 and platform track
3) are not available when it arrives at the station. Note that
usually tracks either in a segment or in a station are used
separately, i.e., some tracks are normally used by upstream
trains, called upstream tracks, such as tracks 2 and 4 in Figure
2(a), and the others are usually used by downstream trains,
called downstream tracks, e.g., tracks 1 and 3 in Figure 2(a).
The train headways are illustrated by Figure 2(b), where
situations (I)-(VI) are the headways between trains running
in the same direction, and the others are those between trains
running in different directions.
First, for trains i and i0 in the same direction, the departure
headway hm
1 to enter segment track (m, n) ∈ Bi ∩ Bj from
station m and the arrival headway hm
2 to arrive at station
m from the same segment track (m0 , m) ∈ Bi ∩ Bj should
always be respected, to ensure safety of trains in segment
tracks and at stations. Besides, as expressed by situations
(I)-(II) in Figure 2(b), the departure-arrival headway hm
3
between the departure of the former train and the arrival of
the latter train should be fulfilled if these two trains occupy
the same station track at station m. Note that the arrival of
train i(i0 ) and the departure of train i0 (i) can be executed
simultaneously on the Chinese high-speed railway when they
occupy different station tracks. In this case, the departure-
arrival headway hm 3 and the arrival-departure headway h4
m arrival time of train j at the station, i.e., pijm = 1 expressed
are out of consideration, see in situations (III)-(VI). Second,
we consider trains i and j in both directions. Obviously, if
the downstream train occupies a downstream station track
and the upstream train occupies an upstream station track,
it is not needed to introduce headway constraints between
these trains. However, once train i arrives at station track 2
or 4, Conflict 1 (Conflict 2) in Figure 2(a) occurs between
the departure (arrival) of train i and the arrival (departure)
of train j at the right (left) double crossover. Therefore,
it is necessary to consider headways hm m
3 and h4 between
these trains, see the situations (VII)-(IX). The train headway
constraints are as follows.
yim + hm
1 ≤ yjm + M · (1 − uijmn )
(10)
∀i, j ∈ T |ϕij = 0, i < j, ∀(m, n) ∈ Bi ∩ Bj
yjm + hm
1 ≤ yim + M · uijmn
(11)
∀i, j ∈ T |ϕij = 0, i < j, ∀(m, n) ∈ Bi ∩ Bj
xin + hm
2 ≤ xjn + M · (1 − uijmn )
(12)
∀i, j ∈ T |ϕij = 0, i < j, ∀(m, n) ∈ Bi ∩ Bj
xjn + hm
2 ≤ xin + M · uijmn
(13)
∀i, j ∈ T |ϕij = 0, i < j, ∀(m, n) ∈ Bi ∩ Bj
Prepared using sagej.cls
yim + hm
3 ≤ xjm + M · (1 − pijm )
(14)
∀i, j ∈ T |ϕij = 0, ∀m ∈ Ai ∩ Aj
X
yim + hm
3 ≤ xjm + M · (2 − pijm − vimk )
rev
k∈Kim (15)
∀i, j ∈ T |ϕij = 1, ∀m ∈ Ai ∩ Aj
X
xjm + hm
4 ≤ yim + M · (pijm + 1 − vimk )
rev
k∈Kim (16)
∀i, j ∈ T |ϕij = 1, ∀m ∈ Ai ∩ Aj
Constraints (10)-(11) reflect the departure headway
between two trains to enter the same segment track in the
same direction. Based on the variable definition, yim +
hm1 ≤ yjm should be hold if the departure time of train i
to enter segment track (m, n) is earlier than that of train
j (i.e., uijmn = 1) according to constraint (10); otherwise,
we have yjm + hm 1 ≤ yim from constraint (11). Similarly,
the arrival headway between two trains to arrive at a station
from the same segment track in the same direction is assured
by constraints (12)-(13). Note that overtaking between trains
in a segment track is prevented by these constraints. If two
trains occupy the same station track in the same direction,
the departure-arrival headway between them is ensured by
constraint (14). Here, whether two trains occupy the same
station track or not is determined by constraint (19), which
will be explained latter. The departure-arrival headway and
the arrival-departure headway, between two trains with
different directions, are formulated by constraints (15)-(16),
respectively. Specifically, either headway hm 3 or headway
hm4 should be satisfied only when train i occupies a station
track
P normally used by trains in the opposite direction, i.e.,
rev vimk = 1. Therefore, constraint (15) transforms
k∈Kim
to yim + hm 3 ≤ xjn + M · (1 − pijm ) and constraint (16)
changes to xjm + hm 4 ≤ yim + M · pijm . Obviously, if the
departure time of train i at station m is earlier than the
by situation (VII), the departure-arrival headway is ensured
by constraint (15), from which we have yim + hm 3 ≤ xin .
Otherwise, if pijm = 0 (see the situation (IX)), constraint
(16) ensures the arrival-departure headway.
Station capacity constraints. A train needs to occupy a
station track at each visited station, and the station capacity
constraints should be fulfilled to ensure the practicability of
the resulting train timetable. As the headway between trains
at every station can be maintained by the train headway
constraints explained above, the station capacity constraint
is to ensure that each station track cannot be simultaneously
occupied by more than one train at any time. The station
capacity constraints are as follows.
X
vimk = 1 ∀i ∈ T, ∀m ∈ Ai (17)
k∈Km
X
wim ≤ 1 − vimk ∀i ∈ T, ∀m ∈ Ai (18)
main
k∈Km
vimk + vjmk ≤ 1 + pijm + pjim
(19)
∀i, j ∈ T |i < j, ∀m ∈ Ai ∩ Aj , ∀k ∈ Km
Constraint (17) denotes that a train must occupy one and
only one station track at each visited station. Constraint (18)
Wang, Zhan, Peng and Zhou 7

Platform
3 Conflict 1
i i’ Downstream
1
Upstream direction
2
direction j
Conflict 2 4
Platform
Station m
(a) Layout of station m

m’ m’ m’
i i’ i’ i i i’
m
hm2
m
h2
m
h2 h1
m m m m
m
h3 h3
m m
h1 h1
n n n
(I) (II) (III)
m’ m’ m’
i’ i i’ i i i’
m m m
m
h2 h1 h2m h1 hm2 h1
m m m

n n n
(IV) (V) (VI)
m’ m’ m’
i i
i
hm3 h4m
m m m
m
h3 hm4

j j j
n n n
(VII) (VIII) (IX)
(b) Headway between two consecutive trains

Figure 2. Illustration of the train headway constraints

ensures that a train that 1 − ejmn ≤ uijmn

P stops at a station cannot occupy (23)
the main track, i.e., k∈K main vimk = 0 if wim = 1. The ∀i ∈ T3 , ∀j ∈ T1 ∪ T2 , ∀(m, n) ∈ Bi
m
station capacity requirement is ensured by constraint (19).
uijmn ≤ eimn
Specifically, if trains i and j want to occupy the same station (24)
track at station m ∈ Ai ∩ Aj , the departure time of train i at ∀i ∈ T1 ∪ T2 , ∀j ∈ T3 , ∀(m, n) ∈ Bi
the station should be earlier than the arrival time of train j ear
fmn lat
≤ zmn ≤ fmn ∀(m, n) ∈ E (25)
at the station (i.e., pijm = 1), or the departure time of train j
at the station should be earlier than the arrival time of train i zmn = znm ∀(m, n) ∈ E|m < n (26)
at the station (i.e., pjim = 1). Here, the requirement that the
αmn ≥ zmn − znn0
station track has been cleared for a while (no less than hm 3 ) (27)
before it can be used again is strictly ensured by constraints ∀(m, n), (n, n ) ∈ E|m < n, n < n0
0

(14)-(15). Otherwise, if pijm = pjim = 0 (see the situations αmn ≥ znn0 − zmn
(III)-(VI) and (IX) in Figure 2(b)), at most one of these (28)
two trains can occupy station track k and vimk + vjmk ≤ 1 ∀(m, n), (n, n ) ∈ E|m < n, n < n0
0

strictly holds. The situation that a segment track is blocked and not
available for any train when it is under maintenance is
Segment maintenance constraints. When a segment track formulated by constraints (20)-(21). Specifically, if train
is under maintenance, it is not available for trains until the i ∈ T needs to pass segment track (m, n) ∈ Bi , the train
maintenance is finished. Besides, the start and end time of should have passed and leaved the segment track at least ∆1
the maintenance should be reasonably arranged to reduce seconds before the maintenance start time of the segment
the negative influence on train operations. The segment track, i.e., xin + ∆1 ≤ zmn if eimn = 1, or the train is
maintenance constraints are as follows. not allowed to enter the segment track until at least ∆2
seconds after the maintenance is finished, i.e., zmn + tmn +
xin + ∆1 ≤ zmn + M · (1 − eimn )
(20) ∆2 ≤ yim if eimn = 0. Constraint (22) indicates that the
∀i ∈ T, ∀(m, n) ∈ Bi inspection train should be operated on a segment track
after its maintenance. Constraints (23)-(24) guarantee that
zmn + tmn + ∆2 ≤ yim + M · eimn the inspection train is earlier than other types of trains
(21)
∀i ∈ T, ∀(m, n) ∈ Bi to enter a segment track after maintenance. Constraint
(25) makes sure that the maintenance start time of each
eimn = 0 ∀i ∈ T3 , ∀(m, n) ∈ Bi (22) segment track is within a given time range, and constraint

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8 Journal Title XX(X)
(26) requires that both tracks in the same segment are
maintained simultaneously. Constraints (27)-(28) calculate
the absolute difference between the maintenance start times
of consecutive segments.
Case study
In this section, we describe our computational experiments
based on the Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway line
in China. We first describe the test instance and parameter
setting. Then, the practical solution is explained, followed by
the computational results obtained by our model. We finally
investigate the effect of new EMUs on train scheduling and
maintenance planning.
The model is coded by MATLAB R2016b and directly
solved by CPLEX 12.8, because CPLEX can find high
quality solutions of the test instance according to preliminary
computational results. The CPLEX parameters are set to the
default values except for the maximum computational time
which is limited to 4 hours. The Dynamic Search, which
is a branch-and-cut based built-in algorithm in CPLEX, is
invoked to solve our MILP model. We refer the readers
to 27 for more details about CPLEX. The computational
experiments are executed on a PC with Inter Core i5-7500
3.4 GHz CPU and 32 GB RAM. The readers can download
the code and the input/output data of our model from
https://github.com/dw-nueliit301/ITSMP-code.
Background and parameter setting
The Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway line is 2,118 km,
and it is one of the longest and busiest high-speed railway
lines in China. The location of the Beijing-Guangzhou
high-speed railway line in the Chinese high-speed railway
network is shown in Figure 3. Currently, in total 38 stations
are set for passengers’ boarding and alighting along the
line, which divide the line into 37 segments. In Figure
3, the numbers in brackets near each station represent the
down
number of downstream station tracks |Km |, the number
up
of upstream station track |Km | and the minimum dwell
time bm , respectively. If train i needs to stop at station
m for passengers’ boarding and alighting, then bim = bm .
Otherwise, bim = 0. When a station connects more than one
line, multiple yards might be set at the station (e.g., Beijing
West Station and Guangzhou South Station), each of which
is dedicated for the trains scheduled on each connected line.
Thus, the number of station tracks shown in this Figure is
that in the yard where the associated train operations are
executed. Besides, an over-night train needs to stop at some
of the intermediate stations (the stations with a red cycle in
Figure 3) for passengers’ boarding and alighting, and it might
also stop at other stations to wait for the maintenance.
The values of parameters are set according to the practice.
To reduce the influence of planning over-night trains on
regular trains, we assume that the arrival and departure time
of train i ∈ T2 can be modified by at most 20 minutes
before and after the planned one. The minimum running
time of a train on a segment track is calculated based on the
practical timetable, and the maximum running time equals to
the associated minimum one plus 5 minutes. The additional
accelerating time and decelerating time are set to 2 and 3
minutes, respectively. The values of ∆1 and ∆2 equal to 0
Prepared using sagej.cls
and 5 minutes, respectively. hm m
1 -h4 (∀m ∈ S) are set to 3,
3, 2 and 2 minutes, respectively. The maintenance of each
segment track should start within 23:30-04:00(+1d), where
“+1d” means the next day. The objective weights β1 -β3 are
all set to 1/3. The timetable adopted by the test line uses
one second as a time interval, and the integer time values
represent seconds in our tests.
Practical train timetable and maintenance plan
The considered timetable is the actual one used in practice
from April 2019 on the day when over-night trains need to be
scheduled. The railway operators usually spend a relatively
long time to obtain a feasible practical train timetable and
maintenance plan (without guaranteed quality). The practical
solution is shown in Figure 4, where the over-night trains
are expressed by red lines, and the regular trains and the
inspection trains are illustrated by blue lines and magenta
lines, respectively. Meanwhile, the gray rectangles represent
the maintenance of segments. In total 14 over-night trains are
scheduled, where downstream train 305 and upstream train
312 (expressed by red dotted lines) are cross-line over-night
trains, and the range of their time to enter and leave the test
line is restricted by the maintenance plan of the connected
line. We assume that they can be modified within a tough
range around the current one shown in Figure 4. Specifically,
train 305 should depart from station 27 within 04:20-04:50,
and train 312 should arrive at station 27 within 22:30-23:00.
From Figure 4 we can see that, the practical solution is
rather intuitive to cluster the over-night trains into a narrow
range, so that they can use the limited spare time effectively
without waiting the maintenance for a long time. However,
clustering over-night trains does not fully meet passengers’
demand, especially for the late departures. It may also create
a capacity issue for passengers travelling shorter distances,
e.g., the passengers travelling from station 38 to station 34
need to wait for about 45 minutes if they miss the short-
distance train 236 at station 38. When it comes to the
performance indicators of the practical solution, the total
travel time of over-night trains is 515,932 sec. Each over-
night train stops at a certain station where it is not necessary
to stop for passengers’ boarding and alighting, increasing
the total travel time of over-night trains. In terms of the
practical maintenance plan, the 37 segments are divided
into 21 maintenance sections. The total absolute difference
between the maintenance start time of consecutive segments
reaches 43,800 sec. Finally, the maintenance time of 22
segments are compressed. Therefore, the maintenance staffs
cannot finish the maintenance tasks of these 22 segments on
the days when over-night trains are operated.
Computational results
The over-night trains are preferred by the passengers to
depart from their origin station within the range of 19:00-
22:00. However, based on our preliminary computational
results on the test railway line, the range for the downstream
over-night trains and the upstream over-night trains should
be 19:30-21:15 and 20:00-21:40 respectively, so that a
feasible solution exists. In this context, to maintain the
feasibility and the service quality of over-night trains, we
assume that downstream and upstream over-night trains
Wang, Zhan, Peng and Zhou 9

1 (5, 4, 180)
(2, 2, 120) 2
3 (4, 4, 120)
(3, 3, 60) 4
5 (2, 2, 120)
(2, 2, 120) 6
Beijing 7 (5, 5, 115)
Shijiazhuang (2, 2, 120) 8
Zhengzhou 9 (3, 3, 110)
Wuhan (4, 3, 120) 10

Changsha 11 (4, 3, 60)

(3, 3, 120) 12
Guangzhou 13 (4, 3, 120)
(8, 8, 120) 14

15 (3, 2, 120)
(3, 3, 120) 16

17 (3, 3, 120)

Station ID Station Name Station ID Station Name (2, 2, 120) 18

19 (3, 4, 60)
1 Beijing West 20 Xiaogang North
(3, 3, 120) 20
2 Zhuozhou East 21 Hengdian East
3 Gaobeidian East 22 Wuhan 21 (2, 2, 60)
4 Baoding East 23 Xianning North (8, 7, 180) 22

5 Dingzhou East 24 Chibi North 23 (3, 3, 120)

(2, 2, 120) 24
6 Zhengding Airport 25 Yueyang East 25 (3, 4, 120)
7 Shijiazhuang 26 Miluo East (2, 2, 120) 26
8 Gaoyi West 27 Changsha South
27 (7, 8, 180)
9 Xingtai East 28 Zhuzhou West (4, 3, 120) 28
10 Handan East 29 Hengshan West
29 (2, 2, 120)
11 Anyang East 30 Hengyang East (3, 4, 60) 30
12 Hebi East 31 Leiyang West 31 (2, 2, 120)
13 Xinxiang East 32 Chengzhou West (3, 3, 120) 32
14 Zhengzhou East 33 Lechang East
33 (2, 2, 60)
15 Xuchang East 34 Shaoguan (3, 3, 120) 34
16 Luohe East 35 Yingde West 35 (2, 2, 120)
17 Zhumadian West 36 Qingyuan (2, 2, 120) 36
18 Minggang East 37 Guangzhou North 37 (2, 2, 120)
19 Xinxiang East 38 Guangzhou South (9, 10, 180) 38

Figure 3. The Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway line

should depart from their origin stations within 19:30-21:15
and 20:00-21:40, respectively, and arrive at their destination
station within 06:00-08:00 of the next day. We extend our
investigated time horizon to 19:00-09:00(+1d) to select the
regular trains which might be affected by over-night trains.
Thus, in total 326 (regular, over-night, and inspection) trains
are considered, including 161 downstream and 165 upstream
trains, in our model. Besides, the actual arrival (departure)
time of regular train i ∈ T2 at station m ∈ Ai is fixed to
the planned time if asch sch
im (dim ) locates within 19:00-19:30
or 08:30-09:00(+1d), so that other regular trains are fixed
and are not influenced by the over-night trains. Therefore,
the obtained train timetable is also feasible in the period out
of our considered horizon.
Optimization solution allowing clustering. In this subsec-
tion, we allow to cluster the over-night trains in our model,
because this situation is acceptable by the railway operators.
Besides, we try to find the train timetable and maintenance
plan where the maintenance does not need to be compressed.
Unfortunately, from our computational results, no feasible
solution can be found within the given computational time
under this situation (coincides with the practice). Thus, we
allow to compress the maintenance time, and the mainte-
nance time of each segment track equals to that adopted in
practice (see Figure 4).
The reduced model by CPLEX has in total 32,430 vari-
ables (including 26,175 binary variables) and 84,597 con-
straints when solving the whole problem. The computation
terminates after 4 hours with a relative gap of 1.53%, and
the obtained train timetable and maintenance plan are shown
in Figure 5. The meanings of the lines in this figure are the
same as those in Figure 4. The objective value is 167,548 sec,
where the total travel time of over-night trains, total deviation
of regular trains and total absolute difference between the
maintenance start time of consecutive segments are 473,168
sec, 432 sec and 29,045 sec, respectively. Even though
relative long computational time is needed to solve the test
instance to optimality, our problem is a tactical one and the
computational time is still acceptable. Besides, a feasible
solution with a relative gap less than 4.2% can be found by
CPLEX within 10 minutes.
As observed from Figure 5, though the over-night trains
are still clustered, and the optimized solution may not fully
meet the passengers’ demand on over-night trains arising

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10
Figure 4. Practical train timetable and maintenance plan
Figure 5. Optimized train timetable and maintenance plan with compressed maintenance and clustering
from some time periods (e.g., during 20:00-20:40 and 21:20-
21:40), our optimized solution still outperforms the practical
solutions, and the reasons are as follows. First, most of the
over-night trains do not need to stop at intermediate stations
where no passenger needs to aboard and alight the train.
Hence, the total travel time of these trains reduces by 8.29%.
Second, the whole high-speed railway line is only divided
into 8 maintenance sections instead of 21 sections in practice,
which makes the maintenance tasks more convenient. The
total absolute difference between the maintenance start time
of consecutive segments reduces by 33.69% compared to
Prepared using sagej.cls
Journal Title XX(X)
that in the practical plan. Third, the influence of the over-
night trains on regular trains can be effectively controlled
to reduce the negative influence to regular trains, because
the total deviation of the regular trains is 432 sec. Only
the timetables of trains 135 and 136 are slightly modified
at some stations, and the maximum deviation of a train at
a station does not exceed 60 sec. Fourth, since there is an
available time slot (from station 38 to station 27) during
20:00-20:40 in our optimized solution, the railway operators
can insert extra short-distance trains if necessary based on
actual passengers’ demand. Thus, conclusion can be made
Wang, Zhan, Peng and Zhou
that, our optimization model is capable to obtain high-
quality over-night train timetable and maintenance plan for
practical-size problems, which outperform the practical ones
made manually by the railway operators. Our optimization
model can provide a better solution to the railway operators
and reduce their solution burden.
Optimization solution without clustering. Considering that
the over-night trains in the above optimized solution (shown
in Figure 5) are still clustered. In this subsection, we try to
distribute the over-night trains more evenly according to their
departure time at their origin stations, so that the passenger’s
demand arising from different time periods can be met.
Specifically, we first divide the ranges 19:30-21:15 and
20:00-21:40 into 7 and 6 continuous time slots respectively
with a nearly equal length. Then, we assume that one and
only one over-night train should depart from its origin
station within each time slot via constraints (6). The reduced
model by CPLEX has in total 30,005 variables (including
23,750 binary variables) and 76,357 constraints. Optimality
is proved by CPLEX with a computational time of 3,561 sec,
and the obtained train timetable and maintenance plan are
shown in Figure 6. The meanings of the lines in this figure
are the same as those in Figure 4. The objective value is
173,724 sec, where the total travel time of over-night trains,
total deviation of regular trains, and total absolute difference
between the maintenance start time of consecutive segments
are 489,171 sec, 2,066 sec and 29,935 sec, respectively.
Compared with the optimized solution shown in Figure 5,
the total travel time of over-night trains and the total absolute
difference between the maintenance start time of consecutive
segments become larger, and the railway line is divided
into 10 maintenance sections in the optimized solution
illustrated in Figure 6. However, the over-night trains
are evenly distributed and the corresponding passengers’
demands arising from different periods are met. Meanwhile,
the values of all the objective components in our optimized
solution shown in Figure 6 are still less than those in the
practical solution. The total travel time of over-night trains
and the total absolute difference between the maintenance
start time of consecutive segments are reduced by 5.19%
and 31.66%, respectively. Only two regular trains 136 and
307 need to be slightly modified, while the modification
does not exceed 6 min. Meanwhile, the railway operators
can also insert extra short-distance trains to the optimized
solution (e.g., between over-night trains 306 and 308) if
necessary, so that the demands of the passengers travelling
for a short distance can be met. Thus, we conclude that
our model can consider different passengers’ demands
arising from different time periods, and obtain an acceptable
train timetable and maintenance plan to provide managerial
insights to the railway operators. For more passenger-
oriented timetabling, we refer to 28 .
Optimization for new over-night EMUs
As explained above, no solution can be found if maintenance
time is not allowed to be compressed under the restriction
of the narrow scope of the trains’ arrival and departure
time at their origin and destination stations. Fortunately, the
operators of the Chinese high-speed railway are planning
to increase the high-speed trains’ maximum running speed
Prepared using sagej.cls
11
from the current 300km/h to 350km/h (actually it has been
realized on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway line
in China), and a new type of sleeper EMUs capable for
350km/h are designed. Thus, we investigate the effect of
the new EMUs on the over-night train scheduling and
maintenance planning. We suppose that the new sleeper
EMUs are adopted such that the running time of over-
night trains on a segment track reduces. Therefore, the
maintenance time of each segment track may increase to
no less than 4 hours to finish the maintenance tasks every
evening. We set the maintenance duration time of each
segment track to 4 hours. Meanwhile, we also evenly
distribute the over-night trains based on their departure time
at their origin station (as done in the above subsection).
The other parameters keep unchanged. The computation
terminates within 4 hours with a relative gap of 0.73%,
and the obtained train timetable and maintenance plan
are illustrated in Figure 7. The total travel time of over-
night trains, total deviation of regular trains, and total
absolute difference between the maintenance start time of
consecutive segments are 498,054 sec, 1,265 sec and 26,004
sec, respectively.
As seen from Figure 7, the over-night trains are evenly
distributed in the predefined ranges of the departure time to
satisfy the passengers’ demand arising from different time
periods in the evening. Maintenance staffs can finish all the
required maintenance tasks during the evening, because no
maintenance is compressed after adopting the new sleeper
EMUs. Meanwhile, the total travel time of over-night trains
and the total absolute difference between the maintenance
start time of consecutive segments still reduce compared
to the practical ones, and the influence of the over-night
trains on regular trains is small. Besides, the test railway line
is only divided into 7 maintenance sections, which makes
maintenance tasks more convenient. However, each over-
night train needs to stop at a certain station to wait for the
maintenance due to the long duration of the maintenance.
Because there are only 6 downstream platform tracks in
station 27, a downstream over-night train must occupy an
upstream platform track in this station. Finally, because all
maintenance tasks are finished every night, over-night trains
can operate every day and more over-night trains might
be scheduled under the waiting strategy after adopting the
new sleeper EMUs. To this end, the increasing passengers’
demand on over-night trains can be met.
Conclusions
Over-night high-speed trains are very popular and convenient
for passengers in countries with a large territory. The
passenger demand on the over-night high-speed trains has
been increasing recently in China. However, the operation
of these trains is inevitably conflict with the regular evening
maintenance and parts of the day-time regular trains. To
satisfy the increasing passenger demand and ensure the
service quality of high-speed trains, it is of great significance
to operate more over-night trains. Unfortunately, the over-
night train schedule and maintenance plan on Chinese high-
speed railway lines are still made manually by experienced
operators in practice, and the quality of the obtained
train timetable and maintenance plan cannot always be
12 Journal Title XX(X)

Figure 6. Optimized train timetable and maintenance plan with compressed maintenance and without clustering

Figure 7. Optimized train timetable and maintenance plan without compressed maintenance for new EMUs

guaranteed. Thus, this paper investigates the integrated over-
night train scheduling and maintenance planning problem
on high-speed railway lines to provide decision support for
the operators in practice. The influence of the over-night
trains and the comprehensive inspection trains on the day-
time regular trains, which run early in the morning and late
in the evening, is taken into account to maintain the practical
feasibility of the obtained train timetable and maintenance
plan in a whole day.
A mixed integer linear programming model is formulated
to minimize the total travel time of over-night trains, the
total absolute arrival and departure deviation of day-time
regular trains from their planned timetable, and the total
absolute difference between the maintenance start time of
consecutive segments. The model can be efficiently solved
by state-of-the-art commercial solvers due to its linear
feature, to find high quality feasible solutions for practical-
size problems. The effectiveness of the model is tested
on a large real-world instance, construct from the long
and busy Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway line in
China. The computational results demonstrate that our model
can find high quality train timetable and maintenance plan

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Wang, Zhan, Peng and Zhou
which outperform the practical ones within an acceptable
computational time. More segments can start maintenance
tasks simultaneously, which makes the maintenance more
convenient. Besides, by adopting a new type of sleeper
electric multiple units, the maintenance of all segments does
not need to be compressed and the maintenance staffs can
finish all the maintenance tasks in every evening. More over-
night trains may be scheduled every evening to satisfy the
increasing passenger demand on the over-night trains.
We assume that the number and paths of over-night trains
are given in advance based on the current passenger demand.
However, it is interesting to investigate where and how many
over-night trains should be operated with the change of
passenger demand. Besides, the line plan of comprehensive
inspection trains has great influence on the over-night
train scheduling and maintenance planning. However, it is
assumed to be fixed in this research. It is worthy to explore
the effect of the comprehensive inspection trains on the
over-night train scheduling and maintenance planning by
properly modifying their line plan. Finally, we focus on
the integrated over-night train scheduling and maintenance
planning on a high-speed railway line. However, extending
our model to a complicated high-speed railway network and
developing more efficient solution algorithms need to be
further considered in the future.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the editor and five anonymous reviewers for
their insightful comments and suggestions. This paper is partially
supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China
(No. U1834209), the National Natural Science Foundation of China
(No.71701174), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central
Universities (No.2682017CX020), and the Fundamental Research
Funds for the Central Universities (No. A1920502051905-005).
Author contributions
The authors confirm contributions to the paper as follows:
problem analysis and definition: Dian Wang, Shuguang
Zhan, Qiyuan Peng; model formulation: Dian Wang,
Shuguang Zhan; case study: Dian Wang, Shuguang
Zhan, Wentao Zhou; manuscript preparation: Dian Wang,
Shuguang Zhan, Wentao Zhou. All authors reviewed the
results and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest with
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.
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