Mathematical Optimisation of Rail Station Location and Route Design in Urban Regions through Minimising Noise Pollution

The number of cities that are implementing sustainable transportation programs has been recently on the rise. Reliance in large urban areas is on the use of public transportation systems such as busses and rapid transit lines (heavy rail) to act as the main mode of public transport in multi-modal transport systems. It should be noted however that operations of rapid transit lines are associated with heavy noise levels. When it comes to addressing the issue of noise pollution from rail lines, it is important to consider the design factors that affect the levels of noise disruption impacting the surrounding population. An important design factor that plays a significant role in determining the overall noise levels that propagate from the rail lines to the noise-sensitive residential zones is the choice of the rail route. As a result, careful consideration of the location of the stops of a rapid transit line is an important issue to address when attempting to curtail the noise pollution of rail operations. This paper proposes a novel mathematical formulation, based on a Binary Integer Programming model, to optimise the locations of stops for a typical rail line construction project. The focus in the proposed model is on minimising the total noise pollution levels associated with the operations of the transit line, given that noise is an important social and environmental factor that impacts the sustainability of the project. A case study is presented at the end to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed model.