Styrning av tågtrafik på Malmbanan

Sammanfattning: The single-track Swedish iron ore line Malmbanan stretches from Luleå to the Norwegian city of Narvik. The mine company LKAB transport iron ore on Malmbanan from the mines in Kiruna and Malmberget to the harbours in Narvik and Luleå for export. The daily traffic also consists of passenger trains and freight trains. Malmbanan has a lack of capacity witch increase the sensitivity of system disturbances.To increase the railroad transport volume LKAB has started to run longer (750 m) and heavier trains. That requires more capacity and meeting stations long enough to take 750 metres trains, today only a third of the stations are that long. To improve the capacity situation one possibility is to develop the train dispatching system. The aim of this licentiate thesis is through case studies of train traffic planning and control illustrate how the capacity on Malmbanan can be improved to make the iron ore flow more efficient.To avoid having to control the production after the timetable the train traffic has to be more flexible than it is today. Increased flexibility could for example represent getting train paths in short-term. The analyses of the Brazilian iron ore company CVRD's transport process shows that it is possible to improve the train traffic flow through advanced technology. Investments in new technology that optimize both train driving and control have shown positive effects at CVRD.However, it is uncertain how much the iron ore train traffic system can change despite improved technology. The train traffic load on the line is too high, there are not enough meeting stations and an traffic increase could lead to even higher disturbances.