Modeling and Solving the Train Pathing Problem
Yusin Lee, Chuen-Yih Chen
In a railroad system, train pathing is concerned with the
assignment of trains to links and tracks, and train timetabling
allocates time slots to trains. In this paper, we present an
optimization heuristic to solve the train pathing and timetabling
problem. This heuristic allows the dwell time of trains in a
station or link to be dependent on the assigned tracks. It also
allows the minimum clearance time between the trains to
depend on their relative status. The heuristic generates a number
of alternative paths for each train service in the initialization
phase. Then it uses a neighborhood search approach to find
good feasible combinations of these paths. A linear program is
developed to evaluate the quality of each combination that is
encountered. Numerical examples are provided. Full Text
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