License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)
When quoting this document, please refer to the following
DOI: 10.4230/OASIcs.ATMOS.2011.38
URN: urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-32658
URL: http://dagstuhl.sunsite.rwth-aachen.de/volltexte/2011/3265/
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Bohlin, Markus ; Flier, Holger ; Maue, Jens ; Mihalák, Matús

Track Allocation in Freight-Train Classification with Mixed Tracks

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Abstract

We consider the process of forming outbound trains from cars of inbound trains at rail-freight hump yards. Given the arrival and departure times as well as the composition of the trains, we study the problem of allocating classification tracks to outbound trains such that every outbound train can be built on a separate classification track. We observe that the core problem can be formulated as a special list coloring problem in interval graphs, which is known to be NP-complete. We focus on an extension where individual cars of different trains can temporarily be stored on a special subset of the tracks. This problem induces several new variants of the list-coloring problem, in which the given intervals can be shortened by cutting off a prefix of the interval. We show that in case of uniform and sufficient track lengths, the corresponding coloring problem can be solved in polynomial time, if the goal is to minimize the total cost associated with cutting off prefixes of the intervals. Based on these results, we devise two heuristics as well as an integer program to tackle the problem.
As a case study, we consider a real-world problem instance from the Hallsberg Rangerbangard hump yard in Sweden. Planning over horizons of seven days, we obtain feasible solutions from the integer program in all scenarios, and from the heuristics in most scenarios.

BibTeX - Entry

@InProceedings{bohlin_et_al:OASIcs:2011:3265,
  author =	{Markus Bohlin and Holger Flier and Jens Maue and Mat{\'u}s Mihal{\'a}k},
  title =	{{Track Allocation in Freight-Train Classification with Mixed Tracks}},
  booktitle =	{11th Workshop on Algorithmic Approaches for Transportation Modelling, Optimization, and Systems},
  pages =	{38--51},
  series =	{OpenAccess Series in Informatics (OASIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-939897-33-0},
  ISSN =	{2190-6807},
  year =	{2011},
  volume =	{20},
  editor =	{Alberto Caprara and Spyros Kontogiannis},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl--Leibniz-Zentrum fuer Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{http://drops.dagstuhl.de/opus/volltexte/2011/3265},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-32658},
  doi =		{10.4230/OASIcs.ATMOS.2011.38},
  annote =	{Keywords: algorithms, complexity, graph theory, railways, scheduling, shunting, train classification, train marshalling, transportation}
}

Keywords: algorithms, complexity, graph theory, railways, scheduling, shunting, train classification, train marshalling, transportation
Collection: 11th Workshop on Algorithmic Approaches for Transportation Modelling, Optimization, and Systems
Issue Date: 2011
Date of publication: 19.09.2011

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