Benefits of a Combined Micro-macro Approach for Managing Rail Systems in Case of Disruptions

The aim of this paper is to propose a new approach for planning and managing the rail system combining both approaches macroscopic and microscopic. In particular, an optimisation model, based on a macroscopic approach, represents the kernel of the procedure and it is used as a first step to study any kind of scenario. The microscopic simulation model, by contrast, generates detailed (and precise) data, such as headways or running times, to overcome the approximations of the macroscopic model. Above all, in case of disruptions, the combination of the two models provides reliable results taking advantage of the benefits of the two approaches. Numerical applications have been applied in a realistic case taken from a real metro network located in the south of Italy; the preliminary results show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.