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Railway crew scheduling with semi-flexible timetables

Author

Listed:
  • Christian Rählmann

    (University of Cologne)

  • Ulrich W. Thonemann

    (University of Cologne)

Abstract

We investigate the impact of coordinating the timetable and the crew schedule in an operational freight railway system. Usually, those problems are solved sequentially—resulting in suboptimal schedules for train drivers due to large idle times between two train rides. We seek to coordinate the timetable and the crew schedule on the operational level by adding flexibility to the timetable. We introduce small time windows that allow to shift entire trains forwards and backwards by discrete time periods. We present a mathematical model and solve it with a column generation heuristic. We test our model on three real datasets of a major European Freight Railway Operator and show that significant reduction in idle time and cost can be achieved.

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Rählmann & Ulrich W. Thonemann, 2020. "Railway crew scheduling with semi-flexible timetables," OR Spectrum: Quantitative Approaches in Management, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research e.V., vol. 42(4), pages 835-862, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:orspec:v:42:y:2020:i:4:d:10.1007_s00291-020-00592-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s00291-020-00592-y
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Leo Kroon & Dennis Huisman & Erwin Abbink & Pieter-Jan Fioole & Matteo Fischetti & Gábor Maróti & Alexander Schrijver & Adri Steenbeek & Roelof Ybema, 2009. "The New Dutch Timetable: The OR Revolution," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 39(1), pages 6-17, February.
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    3. Silke Jütte & Marc Albers & Ulrich W. Thonemann & Knut Haase, 2011. "Optimizing Railway Crew Scheduling at DB Schenker," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 41(2), pages 109-122, April.
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    5. Bach, Lukas & Gendreau, Michel & Wøhlk, Sanne, 2015. "Freight railway operator timetabling and engine scheduling," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 241(2), pages 309-319.
    6. Lukas Bach & Twan Dollevoet & Dennis Huisman, 2016. "Integrating Timetabling and Crew Scheduling at a Freight Railway Operator," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(3), pages 878-891, August.
    7. Lucas P. Veelenturf & Martin P. Kidd & Valentina Cacchiani & Leo G. Kroon & Paolo Toth, 2016. "A Railway Timetable Rescheduling Approach for Handling Large-Scale Disruptions," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(3), pages 841-862, August.
    8. Freling, R. & Lentink, R.M. & Odijk, M.A., 2000. "Scheduling train crews: a case study for the Dutch Railways," Econometric Institute Research Papers EI 2000-17/A, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Erasmus School of Economics (ESE), Econometric Institute.
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    Cited by:

    1. Guo, Jia & Bard, Jonathan F., 2024. "Weekly scheduling for freight rail engineers & trainmen," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).

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