Potential for increasing railway line capacity through accelerated passenger boarding in commuter trains

The article presents a comprehensive study of capacity reserves on bottleneck railway routes–key export-oriented corridors of Russian Railways (RZD). The primary focus is on analyzing the impact of suburban passenger services on the efficiency of mixed traffic, particularly the slowdown of overall train flow caused by prolonged dwell times of electric trains at stops equipped with low platforms. The study formulates and tests the hypothesis that a significant portion of railway line capacity can be unlocked not through costly infrastructure expansion, but by modernizing suburban transport technologies. To verify this hypothesis, a detailed analysis of scheduled train timetables was conducted on sections of the East Siberian and Trans-Baikal Railways, where suburban train traffic reaches up to 20 train pairs per day alongside intensive freight operations. Using tabular calculations and visualized train diagrams, time losses were quantified: on the Irkutsk–Slyudyanka section, the travel time difference between a suburban and a freight train reaches 18.5 minutes, directly resulting in the displacement of 2–3 freight trains per day. Additionally, passenger boarding-alighting times were segmented based on platform height and rolling stock type. Based on these findings, a scenario involving the deployment of electric trains with variable floor height was modeled, demonstrating a potential reduction in dwell times by 30–50%. The results indicate that substantial increases in line capacity on bottleneck corridors are achievable without constructing new tracks or stations. The paper concludes with practical recommendations for rolling stock modernization, phased transition to high platforms, and optimization of suburban train stopping patterns.

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