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Freight Train Routing And Scheduling In A Passenger Rail Network: Computational Complexity And The Stepwise Dispatching Heuristic

Author

Listed:
  • T. GODWIN

    (Marketing and Planning Systems, Chennai 600034, India)

  • RAM GOPALAN

    (Fox School of Business and Management, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA)

  • T. T. NARENDRAN

    (Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, Chennai 600036, India)

Abstract

In many countries, freight trains have to share a rail network with passenger trains. In this paper, we consider a situation where passenger trains must adhere to a strict published schedule, whereas freight train movements can be inserted at any convenient time, without disrupting scheduled passenger trains. We propose an algorithm for the problem of routing and scheduling of a single freight train in a passenger rail network. However, the multiple freight train routing and scheduling problem is shown to be NP-complete, even for simplified instances. Specifically, we show that both routing and scheduling of freight trains are difficult, even when only two freight trains are considered. It is also difficult when freight train movements are restricted to reach their destinations with no idling permitted at intermediate stations. We have developed aStepwise Dispatching Heuristicfor routing and scheduling multiple freight trains in a passenger rail network. Computational results confirm the efficacy of our algorithm for single freight train routing and of the proposedStepwise Dispatching Heuristic.

Suggested Citation

  • T. Godwin & Ram Gopalan & T. T. Narendran, 2007. "Freight Train Routing And Scheduling In A Passenger Rail Network: Computational Complexity And The Stepwise Dispatching Heuristic," Asia-Pacific Journal of Operational Research (APJOR), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 24(04), pages 499-533.
    • Handle: RePEc:wsi:apjorx:v:24:y:2007:i:04:n:s0217595907001358
    DOI: 10.1142/S0217595907001358
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    Cited by:

    1. Woodburn, Allan, 2017. "The impacts on freight train operational performance of new rail infrastructure to segregate passenger and freight traffic," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 176-185.

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