Improving railway maintenance schedules by considering hindrance and capacity constraints

Abstract The availability of railway networks is important for society and the economy. To keep infrastructure in good condition, regular maintenance needed. Regular achieved by devising schedules that assign safe work zones to crews executing preventive activities. This study aims optimize both train operators contractors, considering (a) hindrance parked passenger trains planned freight trains, (b) workload track workers. Further, operations are distinguished into different engineering fields (switches, straight tracks, overhead wiring) since this influences amount hindrance. method presented designing a novel mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model considers these aspects. In our Dutch case study, we assess new scheduling show large improvements can be made terms mean total operators. We also computational costs when using exact (branch-and-bound) or metaheuristic solution methods solving with up 25 zones.