A Heuristic Approach to Solving the Train Traffic Re-Scheduling Problem in Real Time

• Main Authors: Omid Gholami, Johanna Törnquist Krasemann
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-04-01
• Series: Algorithms
• Subjects: railway traffic; disturbance management; real-time re-scheduling; job-shop scheduling; optimization; alternative graph
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/1999-4893/11/4/55

Effectiveness in managing disturbances and disruptions in railway traffic networks, when they inevitably do occur, is a significant challenge, both from a practical and theoretical perspective. In this paper, we propose a heuristic approach for solving the real-time train traffic re-scheduling problem. This problem is here interpreted as a blocking job-shop scheduling problem, and a hybrid of the mixed graph and alternative graph is used for modelling the infrastructure and traffic dynamics on a mesoscopic level. A heuristic algorithm is developed and applied to resolve the conflicts by re-timing, re-ordering, and locally re-routing the trains. A part of the Southern Swedish railway network from Karlskrona centre to Malmö city is considered for an experimental performance assessment of the approach. The network consists of 290 block sections, and for a one-hour time horizon with around 80 active trains, the algorithm generates a solution in less than ten seconds. A benchmark with the corresponding mixed-integer program formulation, solved by commercial state-of-the-art solver Gurobi, is also conducted to assess the optimality of the generated solutions.