ROUTING TRAINS THROUGH RAILWAY STATIONS - MODEL FORMULATION AND ALGORITHMS

Citation
Pj. Zwaneveld et al., ROUTING TRAINS THROUGH RAILWAY STATIONS - MODEL FORMULATION AND ALGORITHMS, Transportation science, 30(3), 1996, pp. 181-194
Citations number
11
Categorie Soggetti
Transportation,Transportation
Journal title
ISSN journal
00411655
Volume
30
Issue
3
Year of publication
1996
Pages
181 - 194
Database
ISI
SICI code
0041-1655(1996)30:3<181:RTTRS->2.0.ZU;2-K
Abstract
In this paper we consider the problem of routing trains through railwa y stations. This problem occurs as a subproblem in a project which the authors are carrying out in cooperation with the Dutch railways. The project involves the analysis of future infrastructural capacity requi rements in the Dutch railway network. Part of this project is the auto matic generation and evaluation of timetables. To generate a timetable a hierarchical approach is followed: at the upper level in the hierar chy a tentative timetable is generated, taking into account the specif ic scheduling problems of the trains at the railway stations at an agg regate level. At the lower level in the hierarchy it is checked whethe r the tentative timetable is feasible with respect to the safety rules and the connection requirements at the stations. To carry out this co nsistency check, detailed schedules for the trains at the railway yard s have to be generated lit this paper we present a mathematical model formulation for this detailed scheduling problem based on. the Node Pa cking Problem (NPP). Furthermore, we describe a solution procedure for the problem, based on a branch-and-cut approach. The approach is test ed in art empirical study with data from the station, of Zwolle in The Netherlands.