Optimizing rollout strategies for migration to moving block signaling – A MINLP-based approach for on-board train integrity monitoring technology

Increasing demand on heavily-used rail corridors in line with the modernization of the signaling architecture are key drivers for migrating to modern, moving-block based train control in the European railway network. In order to maximally profit from the increase of reliability and reduction of costs associated with shifting towards full ETCS Level 3 from a network management perspective, additional requirements on the fleet management level arise. Amongst other things, if track vacancy detection equipment is to be eliminated, all trains operating on these lines need to be equipped with on-board train integrity (OTI) monitoring solutions. In order to facilitate the planning of the OTI network migration processes, a MINLP-model is proposed which allows economic optimization of OTI migration in view of fleet allocation and the removal of trackside equipment for train integrity verification within the network. The model is tested in a case-study based on a generic network abstracted from the Austrian mainline network and found to significantly enhance planning compared to heuristic migration strategies.