Peculiarities of choosing a method for developing rail transportation, taking into account the development patterns of operational work and the transport network

The development of the Russian railway network and the improvement of transportation technology are closely related to the development of increasing transportation volumes by rail. In the first stage of transport development, the increase in transportation volumes was mainly achieved through the construction of new railway lines; in the next stage, after the saturation of Russia's most developed territories, it was achieved through increasing the average weight of freight trains. At the same time, the main technical means for the formation and disbanding of freight trains, and the processing of cars were carried out in large cities, which led to significant costs. At the current stage of rail transport development, it is necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of the third method – the development of existing main lines by laying additional main tracks. This involves double-track inserts on singletrack lines and, in some cases, the laying of third main tracks on double-track main lines.

The article proposes a method for assessing the operating conditions of single-track sections of railway lines based on simulation modeling using the 'Barrier-2' program, based on determining delays in the passage of train flows, including those caused by train crossings. Delay calculations for non-packet and packet schedules with various inter-line travel times and train intervals were performed. The results substantiate a method for accounting for train delays on single-track sections, which can be used for the feasibility study of laying additional main tracks during the development of existing railway sections.

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