Station Dispatching Problem for a Large Terminal: A Constraint Programming Approach

Rajnish Kumar (), Goutam Sen (), Samarjit Kar () and Manoj Kumar Tiwari ()
Additional contact information
Rajnish Kumar: Department of Mathematics, National Institute of Technology, Durgapur 713209, West Bengal, India
Goutam Sen: Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, West Bengal, India
Samarjit Kar: Department of Mathematics, National Institute of Technology, Durgapur 713209, West Bengal, India
Manoj Kumar Tiwari: Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, West Bengal, India

Interfaces, 2018, vol. 48, issue 6, 510-528

Abstract: At Howrah Station, the largest railway station in India, planners manually determine the routing and scheduling of train movements (referred to as train dispatching) at present. This approach to train dispatching, which is a complex combinatorial optimization problem, can result in long delays because planners have many resource-allocation options in the spatial and temporal domains. In this paper, we discuss a computational model to provide the best feasible solution(s) for minimizing the dispatching delays within a planning horizon. We consider an integrated station dispatching problem that consists of allocating and scheduling platforms and routes for trains at Howrah Station, and we develop a constraint programming (CP)-based approach to model the problem. We show that the delay that the model generates is approximately half the delay currently observed in practice. The solutions have been verified by Howrah Station authority, and the model is being considered for implementation. The novelty of the solution is that it uses a CP-based model for the integrated station dispatching problem and successfully deals with a large station with specific operational protocols.

Keywords: constraint programming; Indian Railway; Howrah Station; combinatorial optimization; integrated station dispatching problem; time-interval variable (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1287/inte.2018.0950 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:orinte:v:48:y:2018:i:6:p:510-528

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Interfaces from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().