Dynamic Rolling-Stock Assignment for Minimising Originating Train Delays: A Case Study of a Congested Indian Railway Terminal

Dynamic Rolling-Stock Assignment for Minimising Originating Train Delays: A Case Study of a Congested Indian Railway Terminal | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Dynamic Rolling-Stock Assignment for Minimising Originating Train Delays: A Case Study of a Congested Indian Railway Terminal Yash Kumar, Ramesh Chandra Sahoo, Prashant Dixit This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9331163/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Originating train delays at congested terminal stations are a major contributor to delay propagation across railway networks. This study investigates terminal-level delay characteristics at New Delhi Terminal (NDLS), one of the busiest stations in Indian Railways, using a comprehensive operational dataset covering the full year 2023. The analysis reveals a strong interdependence between terminating and originating delays and shows that a substantial portion of scheduled buffer time remains underutilised under conventional static rolling-stock assignment practices. To address this issue, the terminal rolling-stock assignment problem is formulated as a constrained bipartite matching problem, and a dynamic rolling-stock assignment framework is proposed. A hybrid optimisation algorithm is developed to minimise originating delays while satisfying operational constraints including platform availability, maintenance requirements, and departure-window restrictions. The proposed approach is evaluated through detailed case-study analyses for three representative high-traffic months—January, July, and December—and compared with existing static and first-in-first-out (FIFO) assignment strategies. Results demonstrate that the dynamic assignment framework increases originating-delay absorption from 60–79% to 88–99%, corresponding to improvements of 19–40 percentage points across different seasonal congestion scenarios. The findings indicate that dynamic rolling-stock assignment can substantially improve departure punctuality at congested terminal stations without requiring timetable modifications or additional infrastructure capacity. Railway operations Rolling-stock assignment Delay propagation Dynamic scheduling Railway optimization Indian Railways Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9331163","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":618084033,"identity":"ceace078-ab9a-43f9-a208-630f1fd19420","order_by":0,"name":"Yash Kumar","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA80lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYHACNgYGAzYQg/EBkODhI05LAVgdswFICxtxWj7IgRkSUC5+YHD8+LMHDAZmDPLtvccqv+bYybAxMD98dAOfljM55gYMBmlAxrm027LbkoEOYzM2zsGn5UAO0D0GxxgMJHLMbktuYwZq4WGTxqvl/PNnQC3/GeTnvzErltxWT4SWGwlmEuBAvsFjxvhx22HCWiRvvDGTSDBg4zE4k5cszbjtOA8bMwG/8J1Pfybx4Q+bnHz72YMff26rtudnb374GJ8WhQNAIgEYgyDEzAMSYsajHATkG+BMHgbGHwRUj4JRMApGwcgEAOhhQIheiF2+AAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0001-0677-247X","institution":"Department of Computer Science \u0026 Engineering, Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies, Faridabad, Haryana, India","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yash","middleName":"","lastName":"Kumar","suffix":""},{"id":618084034,"identity":"b3c5e796-518a-420e-ac41-3a71bf291363","order_by":1,"name":"Ramesh Chandra Sahoo","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0296-8106","institution":"Department of Computer Science \u0026 Engineering, Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies, Faridabad, Haryana, India","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ramesh","middleName":"Chandra","lastName":"Sahoo","suffix":""},{"id":618084035,"identity":"fa9faa0b-d7d4-404a-a219-7817688af46b","order_by":2,"name":"Prashant Dixit","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8351-1724","institution":"Department of Computer Science \u0026 Engineering, Galgotias University, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Prashant","middleName":"","lastName":"Dixit","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-04-06 07:44:25","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":{"humanSubjects":false,"vertebrateSubjects":false,"conflictsOfInterestStatement":false,"humanSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false,"humanSubjectConsent":false,"humanSubjectClinicalTrial":false,"humanSubjectCaseReport":false,"vertebrateSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false},"doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9331163/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9331163/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":106294865,"identity":"c72f91cf-fed8-4ada-a17c-3d9cdb6136f6","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-07 08:27:06","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":866428,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"ReserchPaper4MinimizeTrainDelays16.02.2026SpringerFormat.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9331163/v1_covered_19f07539-14e4-4ebd-995d-df86d27cf10d.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"The authors declare no competing interests.","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDynamic Rolling-Stock Assignment for Minimising Originating Train Delays: A Case Study of a Congested Indian Railway Terminal\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Railway operations, Rolling-stock assignment, Delay propagation, Dynamic scheduling, Railway optimization, Indian Railways","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9331163/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9331163/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eOriginating train delays at congested terminal stations are a major contributor to delay propagation across railway networks. This study investigates terminal-level delay characteristics at New Delhi Terminal (NDLS), one of the busiest stations in Indian Railways, using a comprehensive operational dataset covering the full year 2023. The analysis reveals a strong interdependence between terminating and originating delays and shows that a substantial portion of scheduled buffer time remains underutilised under conventional static rolling-stock assignment practices. To address this issue, the terminal rolling-stock assignment problem is formulated as a constrained bipartite matching problem, and a dynamic rolling-stock assignment framework is proposed. A hybrid optimisation algorithm is developed to minimise originating delays while satisfying operational constraints including platform availability, maintenance requirements, and departure-window restrictions. 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