@misc{LindnerMasing2023, author = {Lindner, Niels and Masing, Berenike}, title = {On the Split Closure of the Periodic Timetabling Polytope}, issn = {1438-0064}, doi = {10.1007/s10107-025-02220-5}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-91156}, year = {2023}, abstract = {The Periodic Event Scheduling Problem (PESP) is the central mathematical tool for periodic timetable optimization in public transport. PESP can be formulated in several ways as a mixed-integer linear program with typically general integer variables. We investigate the split closure of these formulations and show that split inequalities are identical with the recently introduced flip inequalities. While split inequalities are a general mixed-integer programming technique, flip inequalities are defined in purely combinatorial terms, namely cycles and arc sets of the digraph underlying the PESP instance. It is known that flip inequalities can be separated in pseudo-polynomial time. We prove that this is best possible unless P \$=\$ NP, but also observe that the complexity becomes linear-time if the cycle defining the flip inequality is fixed. Moreover, introducing mixed-integer-compatible maps, we compare the split closures of different formulations, and show that reformulation or binarization by subdivision do not lead to stronger split closures. Finally, we estimate computationally how much of the optimality gap of the instances of the benchmark library PESPlib can be closed exclusively by split cuts, and provide better dual bounds for five instances.}, language = {en} } @misc{MasingLindnerEbert2023, author = {Masing, Berenike and Lindner, Niels and Ebert, Patricia}, title = {Forward and Line-Based Cycle Bases for Periodic Timetabling}, issn = {1438-0064}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-89731}, year = {2023}, abstract = {The optimization of periodic timetables is an indispensable planning task in public transport. Although the periodic event scheduling problem (PESP) provides an elegant mathematical formulation of the periodic timetabling problem that led to many insights for primal heuristics, it is notoriously hard to solve to optimality. One reason is that for the standard mixed-integer linear programming formulations, linear programming relaxations are weak and the integer variables are of pure technical nature and in general do not correlate with the objective value. While the first problem has been addressed by developing several families of cutting planes, we focus on the second aspect. We discuss integral forward cycle bases as a concept to compute improved dual bounds for PESP instances. To this end, we develop the theory of forward cycle bases on general digraphs. Specifically for the application of timetabling, we devise a generic procedure to construct line-based event-activity networks, and give a simple recipe for an integral forward cycle basis on such networks. Finally, we analyze the 16 railway instances of the benchmark library PESPlib, match them to the line-based structure and use forward cycle bases to compute better dual bounds for 14 out of the 16 instances.}, language = {en} } @article{MasingLindnerEbert2023, author = {Masing, Berenike and Lindner, Niels and Ebert, Patricia}, title = {Forward and Line-Based Cycle Bases for Periodic Timetabling}, volume = {4}, journal = {Operations Research Forum}, number = {3}, doi = {10.1007/s43069-023-00229-0}, pages = {53}, year = {2023}, abstract = {The optimization of periodic timetables is an indispensable planning task in public transport. Although the periodic event scheduling problem (PESP) provides an elegant mathematical formulation of the periodic timetabling problem that led to many insights for primal heuristics, it is notoriously hard to solve to optimality. One reason is that for the standard mixed-integer linear programming formulations, linear programming relaxations are weak, and the integer variables are of pure technical nature and in general do not correlate with the objective value. While the first problem has been addressed by developing several families of cutting planes, we focus on the second aspect. We discuss integral forward cycle bases as a concept to compute improved dual bounds for PESP instances. To this end, we develop the theory of forward cycle bases on general digraphs. Specifically for the application of timetabling, we devise a generic procedure to construct line-based event-activity networks and give a simple recipe for an integral forward cycle basis on such networks. Finally, we analyze the 16 railway instances of the benchmark library PESPlib, match them to the line-based structure, and use forward cycle bases to compute better dual bounds for 14 out of the 16 instances.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{BortolettoLindnerMasing2023, author = {Bortoletto, Enrico and Lindner, Niels and Masing, Berenike}, title = {Periodic Timetabling with Cyclic Order Constraints}, volume = {115}, booktitle = {23rd Symposium on Algorithmic Approaches for Transportation Modelling, Optimization, and Systems (ATMOS 2023)}, doi = {10.4230/OASIcs.ATMOS.2023.7}, pages = {7:1 -- 7:18}, year = {2023}, abstract = {Periodic timetabling for highly utilized railway networks is a demanding challenge. We formulate an infrastructure-aware extension of the Periodic Event Scheduling Problem (PESP) by requiring that not only events, but also activities using the same infrastructure must be separated by a minimum headway time. This extended problem can be modeled as a mixed-integer program by adding constraints on the sum of periodic tensions along certain cycles, so that it shares some structural properties with standard PESP. We further refine this problem by fixing cyclic orders at each infrastructure element. Although the computational complexity remains unchanged, the mixed-integer programming model then becomes much smaller. Furthermore, we also discuss how to find a minimal subset of infrastructure elements whose cyclic order already prescribes the order for the remaining parts of the network, and how cyclic order information can be modeled in a mixed-integer programming context. In practice, we evaluate the impact of cyclic orders on a real-world instance on the S-Bahn Berlin network, which turns out to be computationally fruitful.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{MasingLindnerLiebchen2023, author = {Masing, Berenike and Lindner, Niels and Liebchen, Christian}, title = {Integrating Line Planning for Construction Sites into Periodic Timetabling via Track Choice}, volume = {115}, booktitle = {23rd Symposium on Algorithmic Approaches for Transportation Modelling, Optimization, and Systems (ATMOS 2023)}, doi = {10.4230/OASIcs.ATMOS.2023.5}, pages = {5:1 -- 5:15}, year = {2023}, abstract = {We consider maintenance sites for urban rail systems, where unavailable tracks typically require changes to the regular timetable, and often even to the line plan. In this paper, we present an integrated mixed-integer linear optimization model to compute an optimal line plan that makes best use of the available tracks, together with a periodic timetable, including its detailed routing on the tracks within the stations. The key component is a flexible, turn-sensitive event-activity network that allows to integrate line planning and train routing using a track choice extension of the Periodic Event Scheduling Problem (PESP). Major goals are to maintain as much of the regular service as possible, and to keep the necessary changes rather local. Moreover, we present computational results on real construction site scenarios on the S-Bahn Berlin network. We demonstrate that this integrated problem is indeed solvable on practically relevant instances.}, language = {en} } @article{MasingLindnerLiebchen2023, author = {Masing, Berenike and Lindner, Niels and Liebchen, Christian}, title = {Periodic timetabling with integrated track choice for railway construction sites}, volume = {28}, journal = {Journal of Rail Transport Planning \& Management}, doi = {10.1016/j.jrtpm.2023.100416}, pages = {100416}, year = {2023}, abstract = {We propose a mixed-integer linear programming model to generate and optimize periodic timetables with integrated track choice in the context of railway construction sites. When a section of a railway network becomes unavailable, the nearby areas are typically operated close to their capacity limits, and hence carefully modeling headways and allowing flexible routings becomes vital. We therefore discuss first how to integrate headway constraints into the Periodic Event Scheduling Problem (PESP) that do not only prevent overtaking, but also guarantee conflict-free timetables in general and particularly inside stations. Secondly, we introduce a turn-sensitive event-activity network, which is able to integrate routing alternatives for turnarounds at stations, e.g., turning at a platform vs. at a pocket track for metro-like systems. We propose several model formulations to include track choice, and finally evaluate them on six real construction site scenarios on the S-Bahn Berlin network.}, language = {en} }