Delay Analysis in Marshalling Yards : The case study of Malmö

Abstract: The management of terminal yards requires quite complex day-to-day operations when hundreds of trains could be entered and/or exited marshalling yards every day. More specifically, multi-dimensional decisions are necessary to be taken in daily basis for management of operations. Manual solutions might cause inefficiency in the yard’s operation and consequently to the network. Nowadays, many freight trains in Sweden fail to follow their scheduled plan. In particular, a small portion of trains are following the scheduled arrival and departure time while the majority of trains run ahead of schedule.This master thesis aims to conduct evaluation of internal procedures within a marshalling yard in terms of time, examine the magnitude of delays from the scheduled departure time, and to identify the key reasons causing the delay during departure and their main implications. Furthermore, the master this aims to investigate ways of optimizing operations to increase system punctuality. The Malmo’s marshalling yard was used as a case study.The methods are used for this master thesis are a qualitative as well as a quantitative assessment. A literature review has been conducted using journal papers, conference papers and technical reports from other relevant projects as well as on-site visit and interviews. In order to manipulate the data for the research, the software Planimate was used and a simulation model is built based on operations in Malmo’s marshalling yard. Three scenarios are performed. The first one is considered without any usage of automation. The second one, automation is applied in the case of the arrival yard and the third one, automation is applied in the arrival and the departure yard.The findings from the qualitative research show that there are several factors cause delays, either network failures such as the late arrival of trains in the yard or internal factors as the reduced railway capacity. Also, as the simulation model has been demonstrated, any application of automated processes within the marshalling yard’s operations will be beneficial because will speed up the internal processes. For instance, the third scenario turns out the best scenario among the others because time is reduced almost to half time compared to the first scenario.