Optimization of annual planned rail maintenance

Journal Article (2021)
Author(s)

Menno Oudshoorn (Student TU Delft, Macomi B.V.)

Timo Koppenberg (Macomi B.V.)

Neil Yorke-Smith (TU Delft - Algorithmics)

Research Group
Algorithmics
Copyright
© 2021 Menno Oudshoorn, Timo Koppenberg, N. Yorke-Smith
DOI related publication
https://doi.org/10.1111/mice.12764
More Info
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Publication Year
2021
Language
English
Copyright
© 2021 Menno Oudshoorn, Timo Koppenberg, N. Yorke-Smith
Research Group
Algorithmics
Issue number
6
Volume number
37 (2022)
Pages (from-to)
669-687
Reuse Rights

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Abstract

Research on preventative rail maintenance to date majors on small or artificial problem instances, not applicable to real-world use cases. This article tackles large, real-world rail maintenance scheduling problems. Maintenance costs and availability of the infrastructure need to be optimized, while adhering to a set of complex constraints. We develop and compare three generic approaches: an evolution strategy, a greedy metaheuristic, and a hybrid of the two. As a case study, we schedule major preventive maintenance of a full year in the complete rail infrastructure of the Netherlands, one of the busiest rail networks of Europe. Empirical results on two real-world datasets show the hybrid approach delivers high-quality schedules.