The controllability of China’s high-speed rail network in terms of delivering emergency supplies

Network control theory is first applied here to study the controllability of a High-speed Rail Network (HRN) in terms of delivering emergency supplies. The full controllability or target controllability of an HRN (i.e., controlling the amount of emergency supplies delivered at all stations or target control stations) can be achieved when the amount of emergency supplies transported from some appropriate stations is efficiently controlled. To identify the optimized controlling stations, a model is proposed for minimizing the number of controlling stations and maximizing the sum of trains departing from controlling stations, which effectively and quickly controls an HRN in terms of delivering emergency supplies. The proposed model is demonstrated in a case in which the delivery of emergency supplies by China’s HRN is controlled during the COVID-19 epidemic. The result shows that the sum of trains departing from the optimized controlling stations obtained through the proposed method is higher than that of the optimized controlling stations obtained through the commonly used maximum match method, and thus, the proposed method can obtain a better solution. The proposed method helps operators to identify the optimized controlling stations for effectively controlling an HRN in terms of delivering emergency supplies, and thus helping respond to emergency events.