Publication detail

Sensitivity enriched multi-criterion decision making process for novel railway switches and crossings - a case study

BOGHANI, H. AMBUR, R. BLUMENFELD, M. SAADE, L. GOODALL, R. WARD, C. PLÁŠEK, O. GOFTON, N. MORATA, M. ROBERTS, C. DIXON, R.

Original Title

Sensitivity enriched multi-criterion decision making process for novel railway switches and crossings - a case study

Type

journal article in Web of Science

Language

English

Original Abstract

Background: Despite their important role in railway operations, switches and crossings (S&C) have changed little since their conception over a century ago. It stands now that the existing designs for S&C are reaching their maximum point of incremental performance improvement, and only a radical redesign can overcome the constraints that current designs are imposing on railway network capacity. This paper describes the process of producing novel designs for next generation switches and crossings, as part of the S-CODE project. Methods: Given the many aspects that govern a successful S&C design, it is critical to adopt multi criteria decision making (MCDM) processes to identify a specific solution for the next generation of switches and crossings. However, a common shortcoming of these methods is that their results can be heavily influenced by external factors, such as uncertainty in criterium weighting or bias of the evaluators, for example. This paper therefore proposes a process based on the Pugh Matrix method to reduce such biases by using sensitivity analysis to investigate them and improve the reliability of decision making. Results: In this paper, we analysed the influences of three different external factors, measuring the sensitivity of ranking due to (a) weightings, (b) organisational and (c) discipline bias. The order of preference of the results was disturbed only to a minimum while small influences of bias were detected. Conclusions: Through this case study, we believe that the paper demonstrates an effective case study for a quantitative process that can improve the reliability of decision making.

Keywords

Switches and crossings (S&C); Railway tracks; Multi-criterion decision making; Pugh matrix; Sensitivity analysis

Authors

BOGHANI, H.; AMBUR, R.; BLUMENFELD, M.; SAADE, L.; GOODALL, R.; WARD, C.; PLÁŠEK, O.; GOFTON, N.; MORATA, M.; ROBERTS, C.; DIXON, R.

Released

26. 1. 2021

Publisher

Springer

Location

NEW YORK

ISBN

1866-8887

Periodical

European Transport Research Review

Year of study

13

Number

1

State

Federal Republic of Germany

Pages from

1

Pages to

14

Pages count

14

URL

https://etrr.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s12544-020-00467-x

Full text in the Digital Library

http://hdl.handle.net/11012/204096

BibTex

@article{BUT176321,
  author="Hitesh C. {Boghani} and Ramakrishnan {Ambur} and Marcelo {Blumenfeld} and Louis {Saade} and Roger M. {Goodall} and Christopher P. {Ward} and Otto {Plášek} and Neil {Gofton} and Miquel {Morata} and Clive {Roberts} and Roger {Dixon}",
  title="Sensitivity enriched multi-criterion decision making process for novel railway switches and crossings - a case study",
  journal="European Transport Research Review",
  year="2021",
  volume="13",
  number="1",
  pages="1--14",
  doi="10.1186/s12544-020-00467-x",
  issn="1866-8887",
  url="https://etrr.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s12544-020-00467-x"
}