Towards dynamic exposure-based schedule for hazardous material trains

Hazardous materials (hazmat) transport by rail can expose people living and working in the neighborhood of the railway to fatal risks. Despite the similarities with hazmat transport by road, hazmat transport by rail is subject to stricter schedule constraints, involving a well-defined path and a related timetable. While an alternative railway routing is not always available, it would be possible to define timetables in order to decrease risk. This approach requires the information about the dynamics of the population in the neighborhood of the railway. In this paper, an approach is proposed to show how variations of the timetable can sensibly decrease the average and maximum exposure. The methodology is proposed on an Italian rail section subject to different anthropogenic activities.