9th International Conference on Railway Operations Modelling and Analysis (RailBeijing 2021), November 3-7, 2021

The 9th bi-annual International Conference on Railway Operations Modelling and Analysis (ICROMA) was held at Beijing Jiaotong University in China on November 3rd – 7th, 2021. The Conference was organized by

  • Norio Tomii (Nihon University, President of IAROR),
  • Ingo A. Hansen (Delft University of Technolog, Vice-President of IAROR),
  • Huawu He (Chinese Academy of Engineering, Conference Honorary Chair),
  • Chunfang Lu (Chinese Academy of Engineering, Conference Honorary Chair),
  • Jiaqiong Wang (Beijing Jiaotong University, Conference Chair),
  • Hexiang Yan (National Railway Administration of the People’s Republic of China, Conference Vice Chair),
  • Fuhai Ma (China Railway Society, Conference Vice Chair),
  • Lei Nie (Beijing Jiaotong University, Conference Vice Chair),
  • Fang Sun (Beijing Metro Network Control Center, Conference Vice Chair),
  • Enjian Yao (Beijing Jiaotong University, Conference Program Chair),
  • Lingyun Meng (Beijing Jiaotong University, Conference Organization Chair),
  • Shiwei He (Beijing Jiaotong University, Conference Program Co-chair),
  • Yun Bai (Beijing Jiaotong University, Conference Organization Co-chair).

The Scientific Advisory Committee consisted of

  • Norio Tomii (Nihon University),
  • Ingo A. Hansen (Delft University of Technology),
  • Lei Nie (Beijing Jiaotong University),
  • Lingyun Meng (Beijing Jiaotong University),
  • Shiwei He (Beijing Jiaotong University),
  • Abhyuday (Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur India),
  • Alex Wardrop (TTG Transportation Technology),
  • Alex Landex (Ramboll Group),
  • Andrea D’Ariano (University of Rome Tre),
  • Andreas Oetting (Technische Universität Darmstadt),
  • Anders Peterson (Linköping University),
  • Carlo Mannino (SINTEF ICT Oslo),
  • Christian Liebchen (Technische Fachhochschule Wildau),
  • Dario Pacciarelli (Università degli Studi Roma Tre),
  • Francesco Corman (ETH Zürich),
  • Giorgio Medeossi, (University of Trieste),
  • Ivan Belošević (Faculty of Transport and Traffic Engineering),
  • Joaquin Rodriguez (Université Gustave Eiffel),
  • Joern Pachl (Technical University of Braunschweig),
  • John Preston (University of Southampton),
  • Luis Cadarso Morga (Universidad Rey Juan Carlos),
  • Markus Bohlin (KTH Royal Institute of Technology and RISE),
  • Maged M. Dessouky (University of Southern California),
  • Nils Nießen (RWTH Aachen University),
  • Nikola Besinovic (Delft University of Technology),
  • Otto Anker Nielsen (Technical University of Denmark),
  • Paola Pellegrini (Université Gustave Eiffel),
  • Pieter Vansteenwegen (KU Leuven Mobility Research Center),
  • Rob Goverde (Delft University of Technology),
  • Ronghui Liu (University of Leeds),
  • Steven Harrod (Technical University of Denmark),
  • Stefano Ricci (University of Rome),
  • Thomas Schlechte (LBW Optimization GmbH),
  • Thomas White (Transit Safety Management),
  • Tyler Dick (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign),
  • Xuesong Zhou (Arizona State University),
  • Yung-Cheng (Rex) Lai (Taiwan University).

The 9th ICROMA RailBeijing 2021 was held on 5 days and comprised:

  • 7 keynote speeches on
    • “Ways Towards Comprehensive Multidimensional Transport System” by Mr. Chunfang Lu (Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, China).
    • “Achievements and Prospects of China’s Railway Development” by Mr. Hexiang Yan (Chief Engineer of National Railway Administration, China)
    • “Integrated Process Management of Carbon Reduction in the Transport Sector: A Methodological Perspective” by Prof. Junyi Zhang (Member of The Engineering Academy of Japan, Professor of Hiroshima University, Japan)
    • “Decide & Conquer – Railway Optimization on the Bridge between Theory and Practice” by Dr. Thomas Schlechte (LBW Optimization GmbH, Germany)
    • “Holistic System Technology for Railway Operation and Safety Guarantee” by Prof. Limin Jia (Professor of Beijing Jiaotong University, China)
    • “Continuous Technologies Innovation for Supporting Low-Carbon and Sustainable China’s Railway System Development” by Mr. Huawu He (Vice President of Chinese Academy of Engineering, Academician, China)
    • “Brief History of IAROR, Advances Made in Railway Operations Modelling and Future Research Challenges” by Prof. Ingo Hansen (Professor of Delft University of Technology, Netherlands)
  • 34 track sessions with in total 136 talks
  • A Short Course given by 4 invited speakers on
    • “Train scheduling for metro lines” by Yihui Wang (Beijing Jiaotong University, China)
    • “A general overview of the real-time rescheduling problem” by Marcella Samà (Rome Tre University, Italy)
    • “The value of integrating optimization problems in public transport” by Philine Schiewe (Technische Universität Kaiserslautern, Germany)
    • “Introduction to train trajectory optimization” by Rob Goverde (Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands)
    The 9th ICROMA RailBeijing 2021 attracted a total of 186 participants from 17 countries. A total of 152 papers had been submitted originally, 142 papers (132 full length research papers and 10 professional papers from authors working in the railway industry respectively) were accepted, and 136 papers were finally presented. During the Conference 17 researchers applied for membership of the International Association of Railway Operations Research. This means the current IAROR membership has reached the number of 407. The members of IAROR present on the Conference elected the following new Board member:
    • Prof. Chao Wen (Southwest Jiaotong University, China)
    Rob Goverde and Francesco Corman were elected as the new President and Vice President of IAROR, respectively. The IAROR members voted to hold the 10th ICROMA 2023 in the city of Belgrade, Serbia. The members of the Organization Committee and of the extended Scientific Advisory Committee together with the members of the Board of IAROR present on the Conference selected as winners of the Young Researcher Operations Research Award:
    1. Norman Weik (German Aerospace Center (DLR), German) for his excellent and innovative paper “Macroscopic Traffic Flow in Railway Systems – A Discussion of the Applicability of Fundamental Diagrams”
    2. Yongqiu Zhu (Institute for Transport Planning and Systems (IVT), ETH Zurich, Switzerland) for her paper “A Bi-objective Optimization Model for the Last Train Timetabling Problem”
    3. Xiaojie Luan (Institute for Transport Planning and Systems (IVT), ETH Zurich, Switzerland) for her paper “Passenger-oriented traffic management for railway networks: an integrated supply-demand approach based on a discrete choice model”.
    The Members of the Board and of the extended Scientific Advisory Committee voted also for the Best Professional Paper Award and selected:
  • Hugo Meunier (SNCF, Paris) for the paper “Microscopic modeling approach for real-time train retiming under disturbances for a CBTC suburban railway line”

Conference website: www.railbeijing2021.com