Using an inclusive attribute value function based approach to evaluate the operation performance of high-speed railway network

As a Multi-Attribute Decision Making problem, operation performance evaluation of high-speed railway networks (OPHSRN) is critical in actual management and operation practice. In this paper, the evaluation indexes including technology, economics, coupling and coordination degree are established considering economic characteristics. An Inclusive Attribute Value Function (IAVF) is proposed to calculate attribute value. The Swing Weighting (SW) method, the Entropy Weight Method (EWM) and Scatter Degree Method (SDM) are used to calculate the weight value, respectively. The Weighted Sum (SW) and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) are used to aggregate the decision information, respectively. Sensitivity analysis of each attribute is conducted. The stability of SW, EWM and SDM are analyzed. The results show that the optimal number of experts is 5 when apply SW. SDM is more stable than EWM, TOPSIS has more advantages in reflecting the differences among attribute values. When applying IAVF to calculate attribute value, the selections of weight methods and decision information aggregation methods have little influence on the final evaluation results. Finally, a case study is conducted by using the collected operation data of HSRN in Sichuan (in Western China), Hubei (in Central China) and Fujian (in Eastern China) provinces.