The Engine Scheduling Problem In A Railway Network

Abstract

We present the mathematical version of a scheduling problem faced by a railway company that employs several engine types to provide power for its trains. Each train has motive power requirements that are determined by the weight and length of the train, and the route it travels. The operating constraint is to provide a train with sufficient engines to meet its motive power requirements. We give a mathematical formulation of selecting the mix of engine types that gives the lowest capital investment and operating cost and explore a method of solution based on the decomposition method of Benders. The computational results we obtained are satisfactory for medium size problems and unsatisfactory for large size problems. We also discuss the relevance of the model and comment on its utility in practice.