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Automating rolling stock diagramming and platform allocation

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conference contribution
posted on 2011-11-09, 13:42 authored by Mark S. Withall, Christopher Hinde, Tom JacksonTom Jackson, Iain PhillipsIain Phillips, Steve Brown, Robert Watson
Rolling stock allocation is the process of assigning timetable schedules to physical train units. This is primarily done by connecting together schedules at their terminal locations (known as schedule associations). Platforming allocation is the process of assigning those associations to particular platforms. A simple last-in, first-legal-out algorithm is used for rolling stock allocation that performs comparably to the traditional manual approach but only takes a few seconds as opposed to days or weeks in many manual cases. A simple stochastic hill-climbing approach is used for assigning associations to platforms to provide a conflict-free platform allocation within a few seconds. These two approaches are tested on real train planning problems with excellent results that would allow an expert to rapidly produce optimal or near optimal solutions. The time saving using these approaches can be used by the train planner to try out various options or have greater checking of robustness of the solutions created.

History

School

  • Science

Department

  • Computer Science

Citation

WITHALL, M., HINDE, C.J., JACKSON, T. ... et al., 2011. Automating rolling stock diagramming and platform allocation. WCCR 2011, 9th World Congress on Railway Research, Lille, France, 22 – 26 May.

Publisher

World Congress on Railway Research (WCRR) © SNCF

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publication date

2011

Notes

This paper was presented at WCCR 2011, the 9th World Congress on Railway Research, Lille, France, 22 – 26 May 2011: http://www.wcrr2011.org/

Language

  • en

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