| Summary |
To meet the needs of constructing various railway systems, the Institute of Transportation,
MOTC has carried out a series of research projects on rail capacity. These projects not only
developed rail capacity models and software but also compiled the “Railway Capacity Manual in
Taiwan” for reference and use by all. However, in the current review mechanism for railway
construction projects, there is no standardized approach to analyze rail capacity. In fact, regardless of the implementation of railway improvement plans or changes in operating conditions is changed, evaluating rail capacity to ensure whether transportation capacity can meet demand is paramount. Therefore, this research project applied the rail capacity analysis method to capacity assessment and improvement plan proposals for actual railway construction projects and operational planning of conventional railway systems (i.e. Taiwan Railway) to enhance the practical application of rail capacity analysis technologies.
Through case studies, this research found that double track sections will become a bottleneck when there are too many consecutive stations in the section without overtaking functionality. This research also analyzed the effects of capacity improvement using several strategies which include reducing variations in train speeds, adjusting traffic composition, improving system reliability, constructing new tracks in stations, and signal system upgrading. Besides, the use of flying junctions instead of level junctions can effectively improve the capacity of stations with complex route conflicts. |
