Optimal scheduling and routing of free-range AGVs at large scale automated container terminals

This work tackles the problem of controlling operations at an automated container terminal. In the context of large supply chains, there is a growing trend for increasing productivity and economic efficiency. New optimization models and algorithms are provided for scheduling and routing equipment that is moving containers in a quay area,...

Railway line capacity consumption of different railway signalling systems under scheduled and disturbed conditions

This paper evaluates the capacity consumption on a Dutch railway line both under scheduled and disturbed traffic conditions. For the scheduled condition the standard UIC compression method is used, while the computation of capacity consumption under disturbed conditions requires multiple simulation runs via a Monte Carlo simulation set up. For...

Rescheduling models for network-wide railway traffic management

In the last decades of railway operations research, microscopic models have been intensively studied to support traffic operators in managing their dispatching areas. However, those models result in long computation times for large and highly utilized networks. The problem of controlling country-wide traffic is still open since the coordination...

Optimal inter-area coordination of train rescheduling decisions

Railway dispatchers reschedule trains in real-time in order to limit the propagation of disturbances and to regulate traffic in their respective dispatching areas by minimizing the deviation from the off-line timetable. However, the decisions taken in one area may influence the quality and even the feasibility of train schedules in the other...

Centralized versus distributed systems to reschedule trains in two dispatching areas

Railway dispatchers are in charge of rescheduling trains during operations in order to limit propagation of disturbances occurring in real-time. To help the dispatchers in such task, an advanced decision support system, ROMA (Railway traffic Optimization by Means of Alternative graphs), has been recently implemented to optimize railway traffic...

Effectiveness of dynamic reordering and rerouting of trains in a complicated and densely occupied station area

Railway traffic experiences disturbances during operations while dispatchers need actions to restore feasibility and limit spreading of delays through the network. To help the dispatcher in such task, the dispatching support tool ROMA (Railway traffic Optimization by Means of Alternative graphs) has been designed and implemented. We report on...

An Advanced Real-Time Train Dispatching System for Minimizing the Propagation of Delays in a Dispatching Area Under Severe Disturbances

In highly utilized rail networks, as in the Netherlands, conflicts and subsequent train delays propagate considerably in time and space during operations. In order to realistically forecast and minimize delay propagation, there is a need to extend short-term traffic planning up to several hours. On the other hand, as the magnitude of the time...

Improving real-time train dispatching: Models, algorithms and applications

Traffic controllers monitor railway traffic sequencing train movements and setting routes with the aim of ensuring smooth train behaviour and limiting as much as existing delays. Due to the strict time limit available for computing a new timetable during operations, which so far is rather infeasible by using existing tools, railway traffic...

The effectiveness of static implications in real-time railway traffic management

We study a real-time railway traffic management problem. It consists in adjusting train timetables in order to restore feasibility when unforeseen events in the network make unfeasible the off-line generated timetable. The problem can be formulated as a huge job-shop problem with blocking constraints, which has to be solved within strict time...