Public transport is important for society, it provides accessibility to opportunities. Accessibility is not distributed evenly. Some inhabitants are disadvantaged, which has negative impacts on society. The distribution of accessibility between inhabitants can be measured with transport equity. The PT network should be improved in order to reduce the disadvantage of inhabitant groups. It is not defined how this could be done for regional PT networks. A six step assessment methodology is created for this purpose. The assessment method addresses what objective focus should be applied to, what improvements are possible in PT networks, what measures should be applied and what the equity effects of these measures are. Application of the assessment method yields that substantial equity improvements are possible within the Alkmaar – Den Helder railway corridor. Marginal equity improvements are achieved by changing rolling stock, significant improvements with local doubling of single track and substantial improvements when additional stations are opened. The assessment methodology is also able to identify the presence of trade-offs between inhabitants by mutual comparison.

Block signalling and Automatic Train Protection are two of the main railway safety systems to control the risk of train accidents. The combination of the existing Dutch block signalling system NS’54 and ATP-system ATB-EG is functioning well, but has some drawbacks. The systems have been designed over 60 years ago with proven technology of that time. Components are old and will have to be replaced in the near future. The safety functionality of the legacy systems is limited. Moreover, the capacity of the Dutch railway network with NS’54/ATB-EG is almost fully used while demand grows. Solutions are required to match the demand growth. The European Rail Traffic Managements System (ERTMS) is proposed to be the new standard European safety system. Train control is included in the European Train Control System (ETCS). It offers benefits in the form of interoperability, increased safety, speed, capacity and/or reliability over the national system. ERTMS/ETCS Hybrid Level 3 is an integrated cab-signalling and train protection system that combines train position information, onboard train integrity confirmation and trackside train detection. Compared to the legacy system NS'54/ATB-EG and the proposed system ERTMS/ETCS Level 2 it offers more railway capacity and allows for a reduction in trackside train detection. This thesis shows that the infrastructure occupation can drop from 84% to 66,7% when implementing ERTMS/ETCS Hybrid Level 3. Reducing the amount of trackside train detection to the minimum and transitioning from track circuits to axle counters can result in a decrease of track unavailability related to train protection systems of over 40% compared to the existing configuration.

The Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management set up the ERTMS Programme and commissioned ProRail to realize the rollout. In Dutch vernacular, ERTMS is often used, but the system that replaces the legacy dutch system is ETCS Level 2. This rollout of ETCS Level 2 in infrastructure is currently being done on 7 sections of track in collaboration with 5 engineering firms that form the knowledge alliance. Although the rollout of ETCS Level 2 in the Netherlands is still in progress, research into new ETCS variants is ongoing. One of these variants is ETCS Hybrid Level 3. In ETCS Hybrid Level 3, Virtual Sub-Section (VSS) are introduced, allowing smaller track sections without additional investment in Trackside Train Detection (TTD). The use of VSS requires a Train Integrity Monitoring (TIM) system in the train that monitors train integrity. Out of the analysis of this paper, it can be concluded that the implementation of ETCS Hybrid Level 3 will results in changes within the Radio Block Center (RBC), Interlocking (IXL), rolling stock and user processes. The scale of the challenges that will occur by the implementation of ETCS Hybrid Level 3 depends on the implementation strategy that will be applied. Within the rail sector, there is much uncertainty as to what benefits are desired and feasible, and what implementation steps are required to achieve them. Analysis have shown that an potential implementation of ETCS Hybrid Level 3 will arise a significant challenge on an organisational level within the Dutch rail sector.

The introduction and obligation of tendering PT (concessions) in Europe has led to more focus on cost-efficiency and contracts. An additional effect in regional PT is the increase of undesirable boundaries between train and bus, e.g. in the form of non-aligned tariffs and bad interchange possibilities. The goal of a multimodal concession is to abolish these boundaries and establish an integrated PT system by tendering regional train and bus simultaneously. When the organisational part of integration is established this way, it becomes possible establish operational integration, which is defined as the alignment of the networks, schedules, information, tickets & tariffs, and Traffic Control of regional train and bus. Our analysis shows that internal coordination (in a multimodal concession), set against cases where integration is arranged by a contract or a partnership, indeed leads to more focus and better tuning of most of the five levels. In a particular case, on balance passengers are offered a better aligned PT system and the operator can operate more efficiently. However, not in each case a multimodal concession is most suitable and the risks for operators are large. Besides that, the implementation often is a difficult process. It is concluded that in cases it is possible to tender a multimodal concession, the pros often outweigh the cons.

In the 2020 timetable the Dutch legacy signalling and automatic train protection systems (ATB/NS’54) are operating at maximum capacity in the busiest parts of the network. With future expansions of services in mind, the capacity provided by the legacy systems could be considered insufficient. The planned implementation of the ERTMS/ETCS Level 2 system might still not provide sufficient capacity in these locations. This thesis investigates how the technological developments of the Hybrid Level 3 and ATO (GoA2) systems could contribute to the capacity of the railway network with the objective to provide a solution for the busiest part of the Dutch railway network. The capacity effects of these systems are analysed through a simulation case study on the SAAL corridor on the Dutch railway network, using a variant of the 2030 timetable. Through timetable compressions, the capacity that the different systems (ATB/NS’54, ERTMS/ETCS Level 2, Hybrid Level 3 and ATO) provide in different configurations. A further comparison between the human driver behaviour and automatic systems is made to determine where possible capacity benefits could be gained from. The thesis was partly used as an opportunity to further develop capacity modelling methods for ERTMS/ETCS and ATO based on the constraints provided by the systems and modelling software. The timetable compressions provided an overview of each separate system and configuration step and their contribution to the capacity. The results of the timetable compressions indicated that the ERTMS/ETCS Hybrid Level 3 and ATO systems provided 4 main steps for increasing capacity. 1. Improving braking behaviour through the use of ERTMS/ETCS braking curves instead of the legacy system 2. The use of shorter block sections through the ERTMS/ETCS Hybrid Level 3 system 3. An optimisation of driving/braking behaviour through the ATO system 4. The possibility to limit headway buffer times due to homogenisation of train movements brought by the ATO Sizable variations in the timetable compressions on the different part of the corridor caused by variations in the service pattern and infrastructure configuration indicated that the effectiveness of these systems will vary based on the location. This shows the importance for infrastructure managers of investigating these systems on a case by case basis when using them to increase capacity on their respective networks. The results from the case study indicate that the ERTMS/ETCS Hybrid Level 3 and ATO systems could provide a possible alternative for costly infrastructure expansion projects to increase capacity on the Dutch railway network. Trade-offs will need to be made between capacity, costs, and robustness to determine the optimal system configuration.

In this thesis, the applicability of tram-train in an urban region is studied. A three-step top-down method is used, to narrow down the solution space and determine whether a tram-train solution can be applied, is suitable and technically feasible.

Railways are facing the challenge to simultaneously increase the capacity and the operational performance of their network. Automatic train operation (ATO) can be one of the technologies to increase the capacity of the railway network. The specifications for ATO over the European Train Control System (ETCS) automatic train protection system have been defined. However, testing is taking place over legacy automatic train protection systems , such as ATBNG, as well. ATO requires information from the automatic train protection system. The goal of this master thesis is to determine the data gap between ETCS and ATBNG in relation to ATO. First a generic ATO model is developed from literature. This model presents the information required and produced by ATO. The model is used as a framework for the analysis of ATO over ETCS and ATO over ATBNG. This analysis resulted in a conceptual model of both ATO over ETCS and ATO over ATBNG. The conceptual model shows that ATBNG can provide the required information if the ATBNG operational envelope is used as the relevant safety envelope. However, currently the operational envelope of the NS’54 signalling system is the relevant safety envelope. Additional information is required to allow ATO to determine the NS’54 operational envelope. Furthermore, ATBNG is not capable of presenting ATO information to the train driver. A new ATO DMI is required. Moreover, the ProRail traffic management system is not yet capable of providing ATO with the required information for both ATO over ETCS and ATO over ATBNG. To validate the conceptual ATO over ATBNG model three case studies have been worked out. The study performed for this master thesis is an exploratory study, therefore validation of the findings and assumptions is required.

Passenger punctuality is one of the most important measures to indicate and improve the service reliability of public transport operators. Previously, passenger punctuality measurements were mainly based on passenger counts in combination with vehicle locations. With the growing use of Automatic Fare Collection systems, passenger punctuality made a step forward in accuracy where it comes to normal situations. During disruptions, however, passenger journeys may be hindered, causing different journey patterns that are not captured in the normal data. This research introduces, therefore, a reconstruction method to analyze the impact of disruptions on passenger punctuality that is not captured in the currently available methods. This method has been applied to several cases in the Dutch rail network. It appears that passenger punctuality is structurally overestimated by the current methods.

When trains are not actively traveling on the main rail network, they to be parked and prepared for their next journey. This is a complex problem, involving several interconnected subproblems. Additionally, there is uncertainty in this environment which can render initial plans infeasible during their execution. To ensure trains are able to depart in time, having finished all their required service tasks, a schedule is created in advance. The focus of this thesis is to address the challenges associated with generating robust initial shunting plans in an uncertain environment. This thesis focuses on a sequential problem formulation, modeled as a Markov Decision Process (MDP) and uses a policy optimized for this environment. The goal is to design a method capable of deriving robust initial shunting plans from the policy that are likely to remain feasible for a large number of possible plan executions. The limitation addressed in this thesis, is that conventional policy-rollout techniques generate action sequences that overlook most alternative outcomes, thereby making the overall plan not feasible for a large number of plan realizations. To address this issue, the thesis proposes two distinct solution methods, aimed to consider every possible state that might be encountered, either directly or indirectly. Through experimentation on realistically generated problem instances, the research concludes that both proposed methods significantly outperform the baseline approach, demonstrating the possibility of extracting robust initial shunting plans from a given policy that was not explicitly designed for this purpose.

Due to the continuous expansion of the urban scale, the urban metro transportation system also needs to be constantly updated, especially those cities that need to carry mega-events. Larger carrying capacity, better collaboration mode and more optimized operation mode are required to handle the sudden increase in travel demand. The ever-growing micromobility system and the multimodal transport system of micromobility and other public transportation methods can well meet this trend. This thesis aims to develop a multimodal transport optimization model that takes full advantage of the micromobility mode. This thesis, from the perspective of the traffic system administrator, explores the influence of micromobility on the cost of the entire traffic system under the premise of maintaining the normal operation of the metro system after micromobility joins the traffic system at the same level as the metro. Firstly, through literature review, the research object is determined to be a representative shared bike in micromobility mode. The way to deal with the excessive travel demand brought by mega-events is to add shared bikes to the transportation system with the same status as the metro on the basis of maintaining the normal operation of the metro system, and cooperate with the metro system to meet the demand. Secondly, the research methods are qualitative research and quantitative research. In the qualitative research, model design, adjustment and optimization are carried out in combination with actual experience to realize the design of the multimodal transport system of shared bike and urban metro system. In quantitative research, this thesis describes a case study area based on real condition and proposes six scenarios. And through demand forecasting and parameter changes, this thesis explores the situation that only metro participates in the transportation system, and micromobility mode participates in the transportation system with metro with different parameters, etc., under the premise of meeting the excessive travel demand brought by mega-events, impact on total travel costs. Through model optimization and scenario verification, it is concluded that when the micromobility mode participates in the transportation system in a reasonable way, the multimodal transport system will be able to reduce the total cost, and the degree of reduction is related to the characteristics and parameters of the mode.