Robust Shunting in a Dynamic Environment: Deriving Proactive Schedules from a Reactive Policy

When trains are not actively traveling on the main rail network, they to be parked and prepared for their next journey. This is a complex problem, involving several interconnected subproblems. Additionally, there is uncertainty in this environment which can render initial plans infeasible during their execution. To ensure trains are able to...

Inferring Robust Plans with a Rail Network Simulator

Over 700 trains in the Netherlands are used daily for passenger transportation. Train operations involve tasks like parking, recombination, cleaning, and maintenance, which take place in shunting yards. The train unit shunting problem (TUSP) is a complex planning problem made more difficult by uncertainties such as delays. Most existing...

Mixed-direction train shunting with numerical planning: Approach to support train departures at any time during the shunting plan

In this paper, we discuss our novel approach to support mixed-direction shunting in the planning domain for tree-like shunting yards. We explain how we used numeric fluents to improve an existing PDDL domain to support such actions. We elaborate on the underlying conceptual model of our domain and argue how does it accurately represent<br/...

Applying the Pebble Motion problem: studying the feasibility of the Train Unit Shunting Problem

Shunting yards are the locations where trains, which are not included in the train schedule at a certain time, are parked until they are required again. Managing the parking of the trains such that all trains can leave at the desired time is a complicated task, and results in the problem formally known as the Train Unit Shunting Problem (TUSP)....

Train Unit Shunting Problem, a Multi-Agent Pathfinding approach

The Train Unit Shunting Problem (TUSP) is a well studied problem within the NS (Dutch Railways). TUSP is a problem where trains have to be routed on a shunting yard such that maintenance tasks can be performed and no collisions occur. Furthermore, incoming trains have to be matched to outgoing trains, since trains of the same type can be used...

Optimizing train parking and shunting at NS service yards

This thesis proposes several methods to solve the planning of parking and servicing of trains in a shunting yard. Management of temporary superfluous resources and maintenance is a recurring topic in many fields. Trains visit a service yard regularly to be cleaned, maintained, and to store them outside rush hours. These activities are currently...