A method for optimizing railway speed profiles basing on the maximization of the coasting

This paper focuses on railway speed profiles, proposing a novel approach for the optimisation of energy consumption. Energy efficiency is researched by “coasting” driving technique. The method proposes to use the time interval of the “regulation margin” to minimize energy consumption. The method is based on the application of an algorithm scheduled in successive steps: former the algorithm finds all the sections of the route where coasting driving is applicable and classifies them in terms of energy efficiency; later, the opportunities to choose the sections is examined in terms of residual regulation margin and energy efficiency.