A Sequencing Approach for Train Timetabling

Train scheduling is a complex and time consuming task of vital importance in many countries. To schedule trains more accurately, efficiently and robustly than permitted by current techniques a novel job shop approach is proposed and implemented. Unique characteristics of train scheduling are firstly incorporated into the disjunctive graph representation of the solution. Constructive algorithms that utilise this representation are then developed. Meta-heuristic strategies such as simulated annealing are extended, and a new compound perturbation operator is proposed. A numerical investigation and case study is provided and demonstrates that high quality solutions are obtainable on real sized applications.