OR Spectrum

, Volume 33, Issue 4, pp 843–883 | Cite as

Railway track allocation: models and methods

  • Richard M. Lusby
  • Jesper Larsen
  • Matthias Ehrgott
  • David Ryan
Regular Article
First Online:

Abstract

Efficiently coordinating the movement of trains on a railway network is a central part of the planning process for a railway company. This paper reviews models and methods that have been proposed in the literature to assist planners in finding train routes. Since the problem of routing trains on a railway network entails allocating the track capacity of the network (or part thereof) over time in a conflict-free manner, all studies that model railway track allocation in some capacity are considered relevant. We hence survey work on the train timetabling, train dispatching, train platforming, and train routing problems, group them by railway network type, and discuss track allocation from a strategic, tactical, and operational level.

Keywords

Railway optimization Train routing Train timetabling 
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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag 2009

Authors and Affiliations

  • Richard M. Lusby
    • 1
  • Jesper Larsen
    • 1
  • Matthias Ehrgott
    • 2
  • David Ryan
    • 2
  1. 1.Department of Management EngineeringTechnical University of DenmarkKongens LyngbyDenmark
  2. 2.Department of Engineering ScienceThe University of AucklandAucklandNew Zealand

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