Improved stochastic optimization of railway timetables

Péter Vékás, Maarten van der Vlerk and Willem Klein Haneveld

Corvinus Economics Working Papers (CEWP) from Corvinus University of Budapest

Abstract: We present a general model to find the best allocation of a limited amount of supplements (extra minutes added to a timetable in order to reduce delays) on a set of interfering railway lines. By the best allocation, we mean the solution under which the weighted sum of expected delays is minimal. Our aim is to finely adjust an already existing and well-functioning timetable. We model this inherently stochastic optimization problem by using two-stage recourse models from stochastic programming, building upon earlier research from the literature. We present an improved formulation, allowing for an efficient solution using a standard algorithm for recourse models. We show that our model may be solved using any of the following theoretical frameworks: linear programming, stochastic programming and convex non-linear programming, and present a comparison of these approaches based on a real-life case study. Finally, we introduce stochastic dependency into the model, and present a statistical technique to estimate the model parameters from empirical data.

Keywords: stochastic programming; operations research; transportation; railway timetables (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-10-21
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ore
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cvh:coecwp:2015/18

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