Simulation-Based Benchmarking of Virtual Coupling Operational Scenarios: A UK West Coast Main Line Case Study

Virtual Coupling (VC) is an emerging railway signalling concept that allows successive trains to run closer together than the conventional absolute braking distance, promising higher line capacity. Prior VC research has mainly targeted controller design under a relative-braking assumption, leaving a gap in holistically defining and simulating VC scenarios across absolute and relative braking, and across inter-consist (train-to-train) and intra-consist (single-train splitting) configurations. This study addresses that gap by developing a longitudinal train dynamics model, deriving minimum-separation formulations for absolute and relative braking with a proposed dynamic safety margin, and designing a Model Predictive Control (MPC) train-following controller. Four operational scenarios, covering coupling and uncoupling at standstill and in motion, were simulated for a nine-car Class 390/0 Pendolino on the West Coast Main Line in the United Kingdom, between Rugby and Birmingham International. Relative-braking VC on a plain track reaches up to 240 trains per hour at a maximum headway of 15 s, whereas junction-constrained scenarios are capped at 60 trains per hour by the assumed switch-processing time, irrespective of braking principle. Absolute-braking VC achieves 60–70 trains per hour across scenarios. Splitting one train into a seven-car through-service and a two-car stopping portion reduced the through-service journey time by 27% and the combined energy consumption by 21.4% relative to an unsplit nine-car service.