Robustness analysis of railway express freight network

In order to ensure operation stability of railway express freight transport in the face of emergenciesꎬ theories of complex network and robust optimization are used to study topological characteristics and robustness of REFN. Firstlyꎬ statistical parameters of network characteristics were calculated and topological characteristics of REFN were analyzed. Thenꎬ important nodes were evaluated before a comprehensive evaluation index was established based on route gradeꎬ degree value and betweenness. Lastlyꎬ robustness evaluation index under different attack modes was calculated and REFN robustness with or without cascading failure was compared and analyzed. The results show that in contrast to traditional evaluation index of node importance for complex networksꎬ important nodes calculated based on route grade have a greater impact on network robustness. REFN is robust under random attacksꎬ but shows greater vulnerability under intentional attacksꎬ and even more prominent vulnerability when there is cascading failure.