The time slot allocation problem in liberalised passenger railway markets: a multi-objective approach
Research output: Contribution to journal › Research article › Contributed › peer-review
Contributors
Abstract
The liberalisation of the European passenger railway markets recently promoted by the entry into force of the 4th railway package states a new scenario where different Railway Undertakings compete with each other in a bidding process for time slots. The infrastructure resources are provided by the Infrastructure Manager, who analyses and assesses the bids received, allocating the resources to each Railway Undertaking. Time slot allocation is a fact that drastically influences the market equilibrium. In this paper, we address the time slot allocation problem within the context of a liberalised passenger railway market as a multi-objective model. The Infrastructure Manager is tasked with selecting a point from the Pareto front as the solution to the time slot allocation problem. We propose two criteria for making this selection: the first one allocates time slots to each company according to a set of priorities, while the second one introduces a criterion of fairness in the treatment of companies to incentive competition. The assessment of the impact of these rules on market equilibrium has been conducted on a liberalised high-speed corridor within the Spanish railway network.
Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 2535750 |
| Number of pages | 26 |
| Journal | Transportmetrica : B, Transport dynamics |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Publication status | Published - 31 Dec 2025 |
| Peer-reviewed | Yes |
External IDs
| Scopus | 105012199865 |
|---|---|
| ORCID | /0000-0003-4111-2255/work/194826438 |
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Keywords
- Liberalised passenger railway markets, Multi-objective optimisation, Railway operations, Time slot allocation problem, liberalised passenger railway markets, railway operations, multi-objective optimisation