Patent ID: 8589057
Filing Date: 2013-11-19
Classification: B61L,G06Q

Abstract:
1. A method comprising: receiving a movement plan that schedules movements of plural rail vehicles in a track network; identifying factors representative of historical vehicle events that occupied track resources in the track network for one or more respective dwell times during previous movements of the rail vehicles in the track network; assigning metrics to the factors, the metrics representative of relative contributions of the respective factors to previous traffic congestion in the track network during the historical vehicle events; predicting future traffic congestion in the track network during the movements of the rail vehicles that are scheduled in the movement plan, the traffic congestion predicted by calculating a first cumulative total of the metrics assigned to the factors associated with the previous movements of the rail vehicles in the track network that are scheduled to move in the track network using the movement plan; and rescheduling the movements of one or more of the rail vehicles by modifying the movement plan, wherein a second cumulative total of the metrics assigned to the factors associated with the movements of the one or more of the rail vehicles that are rescheduled is less than the first cumulative total of the metrics.