Abstract
We present a Variable Neighborhood Search heuristic for the rolling stock rescheduling problem. Rolling stock rescheduling is needed when a disruption leads to cancellations in the timetable. In rolling stock rescheduling, one must then assign duties, i.e., sequences of trips, to the available train units in such a way that both passenger comfort and operational performance are taken into account. For our heuristic, we introduce three neighborhoods, which focus on swapping duties between train units, on improving the individual duties and on changing the shunting that occurs between trips, respectively. These neighborhoods are used for both a Variable Neighborhood Descent local search procedure and for perturbing the current solution in order to escape from local optima. Moreover, we show that the heuristic can be extended to the setting of flexible rolling stock turnings at ending stations by introducing a fourth neighborhood. We apply our heuristic to instances of Netherlands Railways (NS). The results show that the heuristic is able to find high-quality solutions within 1 min of solving time. This allows rolling stock dispatchers to use our heuristic in real-time rescheduling. • We consider the rescheduling of rolling stock after a disruption occurs. • We propose a Variable Neighborhood Search heuristic for rolling stock rescheduling. • We develop three innovative neighborhoods for local search and perturbation. • We apply the heuristic to real-world instances of Netherlands Railways (NS). • Solutions of high quality can be obtained within short computation times.
Highlights
There is a significant need for decision support for rolling stock rescheduling at train operating companies
We test the heuristic on instances of Netherlands Railways (NS), where we evaluate the quality of the provided solutions by comparing them to an exact solution method
To make this comparison possible, we restrict ourselves in the computational results to the same rescheduling setting as considered by Fioole et al (2006), that is without any train-unit specific constraints
Summary
There is a significant need for decision support for rolling stock rescheduling at train operating companies. As these train units may be planned to operate other trips starting at this station, this is likely to lead to further cancellations if no rescheduling is performed It is these knock-on effects of the disruption on the rolling stock assignment that we focus on in this paper, where we try to minimize any further cancellations and try to ensure that there is a good balance between the number of available seats and the passenger demand. The model of Fioole et al (2006) considers all train units that are of the same rolling stock type as fully interchangeable While this is a realistic assumption in rolling stock scheduling, where the exact train unit is still likely to change between the moment of planning and the day of operation, choosing the correct train unit is often important in real-time rescheduling.
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