Method and apparatus for coordinating railway line of road and yard planners

• US 20060212184A1
• Filed: 01/31/2006
• Published: 09/21/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GE Global Sourcing LLC (Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation)
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Philp, Joseph Wesley, Wills, Mitchell Scott, Maceo, Joanne
• Granted Patent: US 7,937,193 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/19
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 27/10 Operations, e.g. scheduling or time tables
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 27/12 Preparing schedules
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

A scheduling system and method for moving plural objects through a multipath system described as a freight railway scheduling system. The scheduling system utilizes a resource scheduler to minimize resource exception while at the same time minimizing the global costs associated with the solution. The achievable movement plan can be used to assist in the control of, or to automatically control, the movement of trains through the system. Similar movement planners exist for moving trains in yards or terminals. Coordination is achieved and system efficiency improved by interfacing the line of road and yard planners.

Claims

1. A railway scheduling system for scheduling the movement of trains though a rail network having line of road track and yard tracks comprising

a movement planner for the line of road for scheduling trains over the line of road, each train having an incremental cost associated with it, the line of road movement planner optimizing the total cost of the movement of the trains over the line of road;

a movement planner for the yard for scheduling the movement of cars through the yard, each car have an incremental cost associated with it, the yard planner optimizing the total costs of the movement of the cars through the yard; and

an interface for communicating information about the cars and the trains between the yard planner and the movement planner to optimize the total costs of the movement of the trains through the rail network.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the yard planner communicates to the line of road planner the existence of congestion in the yard.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the movement planner delays the movement of train into the yard in response to the communication from the yard planner.

4. In a railway scheduling system having electronic movement planners for both line-of-road and yard railway activity in which each resource used in each scheduled activity has an incremental cost associated with it, the improvement wherein the electronic interconnection of the line-of-road and yard movement planners for cost optimization of the overall system instead of the optimization of either line-of-road or yard activities.

5. In a railroad system in which plural trains are moved along a network of railway tracks under control of a line-of-road dispatcher assisted by a movement planner that assigns resources to activities and considers the cost of each activity and assigned resources in scheduling the movement of trains over the tracks,

and in which plural trains are received and reconfigured in a yard under control of a yardmaster assisted by a movement planner that assigns resources to activities and considers the cost of each activity and assigned resources in scheduling the reconfiguration of the trains, a method of optimizing the movement of train through the rail system, comprising;

communicating from the line of road movement planner to the yard planner the scheduled movement of a selected train approaching the yard from the line of road;

evaluating the scheduled movement of the selected train into the yard by the yard planner;

communicating from the yard planner to the line of road planner the availability of the yard to receive the selected trains;

updating the scheduled movement of the selected train at the line of road movement planner as a function of the communicated availability of the yard.