Train Schedule Coordination at an Interchange Station Through Agent Negotiation

In open railway markets, coordinating train schedules at an interchange station requires negotiation between two independent train-operating companies to resolve their operational conflicts. This paper models the stakeholders as software agents and proposes an agent negotiation model to study their interaction. Three negotiation strategies have been devised to represent the possible objectives of the stakeholders, and they determine the behavior of the stakeholders in proposing offers to other stakeholders. Empirical simulation results confirm that the use of the proposed negotiation strategies lead to outcomes that are consistent with the objectives of the stakeholders.