Question

Consider commuter trains of physical length, L, serving contiguous stations. At each
station, trains stop to load and unload passengers and this requires a fixed “dwell” time,
d. Between stations, trains travel at cruise speed, v. We ignore effects of acceleration and
deceleration.
For safety reasons, consecutive trains must always maintain a physical separation of at
least one block length, b, between the tail of one train and the head of the train
immediately behind.
Determine the maximum flow of trains possible given the above operating conditions.
Express this maximum flow in terms of the variables given. Sketch trajectories suitable
for solving this problem.

Answer 1