What is it about?
Given two railway timetables, which one is the best in terms of connectivity, accessibility and travel time? Adding fast services potentially reduce travel times on certains O/D couples, but at the same time it might reduce connectivity and accessibility on regional patterns. We adopt a complex network perspective, representing timetables as graphs and applying clustering techniques. Our goal is to uncover latent patterns in service organization and support more informed planning decisions for efficient, passenger-oriented railway systems.
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Why is it important?
It is useful to have a synthetic indicator that help finding structural information about railway timetables. The analysis revealed how improved frequency and reduced travel times reshape modular structures and enhance overall connectivity. Our methodology highlighted strategic nodes that act as transfer hubs and showed how planned infrastructure developments impact the cohesion and accessibility of the timetable system.
Perspectives
We believe this methodology can be a valuable tool for planners and decision-makers, applicable not only to national rail networks but also to regional and urban transport systems aiming for better service integration.
Fabio Lamanna
Freelance Civil Engineer
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Unveiling connectivity patterns of railway timetables through complex network theory and Infomap clustering, PLOS One, July 2025, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0328681.
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