Real Time Holding Control for Multiline Networks

We introduce a rule based multiline holding criterion for regularity in branch and trunk networks accounting for all passenger groups. On the shared transit corridor, we consider synchronization at the merging or the diverging stop. The decision between holding for regularity or synchronization is taken by comparing the expected passenger cost of each control action. The proposed criterion is tested through simulation in a synthetic double fork network with different shares of transferring passengers, control schemes for regularity and synchronization. The results show that multiline control outperforms the state of the art schemes at the network level, stemming from benefits occurring at the first part of the route and the shared transit corridor and a 3.5% more stable joint headway compared to the other schemes. Additionally, it is advised to perform the synchronization at the diverging stop, as it proves to result in a more stable transferring time equal to the joint frequency of the corridor while reducing the transfer time variability up to -42.7%.