Heuristic Based Real-Time Train Rescheduling System

This article deals with the problem of train rescheduling on a railway network. Starting from a defined network topology and initial timetable, the article considers a dynamic train rescheduling in response to disturbances that have occurred. The train rescheduling problem was mapped into a special case of the job shop scheduling problem and solved by applying a constraint programming approach. To improve the time performance of available constraint programming tool and to satisfy a selected objective function, a combination of three classes of heuristics are proposed: bound heuristics, separation heuristics, and search heuristics. Experimental evaluation of the implemented software in Belgrade railway dispatching area indicates that the proposed approach is capable of providing the support to a real-life operational railway control. In our solution, the dispatcher has the possibility of choosing the most suitable optimization criterion from the set of seven available ones. (C) 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.