@misc{SchlechteTanner2010, author = {Schlechte, Thomas and Tanner, Andreas}, title = {Railway capacity auctions with dual prices}, issn = {1438-0064}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-11729}, number = {10-10}, year = {2010}, abstract = {Railway scheduling is based on the principle of the construction of a conflict-free timetable. This leads to a strict definition of capacity: in contrast with road transportation, it can be said in advance whether a given railway infrastructure can accommodate - at least in theory - a certain set of train requests. Consequently, auctions for railway capacity are modeled as auctions of discrete goods -- the train slots. We present estimates for the efficiency gain that may be generated by slot auctioning in comparison with list price allocation. We introduce a new class of allocation and auction problems, the feasible assignment problem, that is a proper generalization of the well-known combinatorial auction problem. The feasible assignment class was designed to cover the needs for an auction mechanism for railway slot auctions, but is of interest in its own right. As a practical instance to state and solve the railway slot allocation problem, we present an integer programming formulation, briefly the ACP, which turns out to be an instance of the feasible assignment problem and whose dual problem yields prices that can be applied to define a useful activity rule for the linearized version of the Ausubel Milgrom Proxy auction. We perform a simulation aiming to measure the impact on efficiency and convergence rate.}, language = {en} } @misc{BlancoBorndoerferHoangetal.2017, author = {Blanco, Marco and Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Hoang, Nam-Dung and Kaier, Anton and Maristany de las Casas, Pedro and Schlechte, Thomas and Schlobach, Swen}, title = {Cost Projection Methods for the Shortest Path Problem with Crossing Costs}, issn = {1438-0064}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-64817}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Real world routing problems, e.g., in the airline industry or in public and rail transit, can feature complex non-linear cost functions. An important case are costs for crossing regions, such as countries or fare zones. We introduce the shortest path problem with crossing costs (SPPCC) to address such situations; it generalizes the classical shortest path problem and variants such as the resource constrained shortest path problem and the minimum label path problem. Motivated by an application in flight trajectory optimization with overflight costs, we focus on the case in which the crossing costs of a region depend only on the nodes used to enter or exit it. We propose an exact Two-Layer-Dijkstra Algorithm as well as a novel cost-projection linearization technique that approximates crossing costs by shadow costs on individual arcs, thus reducing the SPPCC to a standard shortest path problem. We evaluate all algorithms' performance on real-world flight trajectory optimization instances, obtaining very good {\`a} posteriori error bounds.}, language = {en} } @misc{BorndoerferReutherSchlechteetal.2015, author = {Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Reuther, Markus and Schlechte, Thomas and Schulz, Christof and Swarat, Elmar and Weider, Steffen}, title = {Duty Rostering in Public Transport - Facing Preferences, Fairness, and Fatigue}, issn = {1438-0064}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-56070}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Duty rostering problems occur in different application contexts and come in different flavors. They give rise to very large scale integer programs which ypically have lots of solutions and extremely fractional LP relaxations. In such a situation, heuristics can be a viable algorithmic choice. We propose an mprovement method of the Lin-Kernighan type for the solution of duty rostering problems. We illustrate its versatility and solution quality on three different applications in public transit, vehicle routing, and airline rostering with a focus on the management of preferences, fairness, and fatigue, respectively.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{GrimmBorndoerferReutheretal.2017, author = {Grimm, Boris and Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Reuther, Markus and Schade, Stanley and Schlechte, Thomas}, title = {A Propagation Approach to Acyclic Rolling Stock Rotation Optimization}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the IAROR conference RailLille}, year = {2017}, abstract = {The rolling stock, i.e., railway vehicles, are one of the key ingredients of a running railway system. As it is well known, the offer of a railway company to their customers, i.e., the railway timetable, changes from time to time. Typical reasons for that are different timetables associated with different seasons, maintenance periods or holidays. Therefore, the regular lifetime of a timetable is split into (more or less) irregular periods where parts of the timetable are changed. In order to operate a railway timetable most railway companies set up sequences that define the operation of timetabled trips by a single physical railway vehicle called (rolling stock) rotations. Not surprisingly, the individual parts of a timetable also affect the rotations. More precisely, each of the parts brings up an acyclic rolling stock rotation problem with start and end conditions associated with the beginning and ending of the corresponding period. In this paper, we propose a propagation approach to deal with large planning horizons that are composed of many timetables with shorter individual lifetimes. The approach is based on an integer linear programming formulation that propagates rolling stock rotations through the irregular parts of the timetable while taking a large variety of operational requirements into account. This approach is implemented within the rolling stock rotation optimization framework ROTOR used by DB Fernverkehr AG, one of the leading railway operators in Europe. Computational results for real world scenarios are presented to evaluate the approach.}, language = {en} } @article{BorndoerferSagnolSchlechteetal.2016, author = {Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Sagnol, Guillaume and Schlechte, Thomas and Swarat, Elmar}, title = {Optimal duty rostering for toll enforcement inspectors}, volume = {252(2)}, journal = {Annals of Operations Research}, edition = {252}, publisher = {Springer US}, doi = {10.1007/s10479-016-2152-1}, pages = {383 -- 406}, year = {2016}, abstract = {We present the problem of planning mobile tours of inspectors on German motorways to enforce the payment of the toll for heavy good trucks. This is a special type of vehicle routing problem with the objective to conduct as good inspections as possible on the complete network. In addition, we developed a personalized crew rostering model, to schedule the crews of the tours. The planning of daily tours and the rostering are combined in a novel integrated approach and formulated as a complex and large scale Integer Program. The main focus of this paper extends our previous publications on how different requirements for the rostering can be modeled in detail. The second focus is on a bi-criteria analysis of the planning problem to find the balance between the control quality and the roster acceptance. Finally, computational results on real-world instances show the practicability of our method and how different input parameters influence the problem complexity.}, language = {en} } @misc{BorndoerferArslanElijazyferetal.2016, author = {Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Arslan, Oytun and Elijazyfer, Ziena and G{\"u}ler, Hakan and Renken, Malte and Sahin, G{\"u}venc and Schlechte, Thomas}, title = {Line Planning on Path Networks with Application to the Istanbul Metrob{\"u}s}, issn = {1438-0064}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-60119}, year = {2016}, abstract = {Bus rapid transit systems in developing and newly industrialized countries often consist of a trunk with a path topology. On this trunk, several overlapping lines are operated which provide direct connections. The demand varies heavily over the day, with morning and afternoon peaks typically in reverse directions. We propose an integer programming model for this problem, derive a structural property of line plans in the static (or single period) ``unimodal demand'' case, and consider approaches to the solution of the multi-period version that rely on clustering the demand into peak and off-peak service periods. An application to the Metrob{\"u}s system of Istanbul is discussed.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{BlancoBorndoerferHoangetal.2016, author = {Blanco, Marco and Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Hoang, Nam-Dung and Kaier, Anton and Schienle, Adam and Schlechte, Thomas and Schlobach, Swen}, title = {Solving Time Dependent Shortest Path Problems on Airway Networks Using Super-Optimal Wind}, volume = {54}, booktitle = {16th Workshop on Algorithmic Approaches for Transportation Modelling, Optimization, and Systems (ATMOS 2016)}, editor = {Marc, Goerigk}, doi = {10.4230/OASIcs.ATMOS.2016.12}, pages = {15}, year = {2016}, abstract = {We study the Flight Planning Problem for a single aircraft, which deals with finding a path of minimal travel time in an airway network. Flight time along arcs is affected by wind speed and direction, which are functions of time. We consider three variants of the problem, which can be modeled as, respectively, a classical shortest path problem in a metric space, a time-dependent shortest path problem with piecewise linear travel time functions, and a time-dependent shortest path problem with piecewise differentiable travel time functions. The shortest path problem and its time-dependent variant have been extensively studied, in particular, for road networks. Airway networks, however, have different characteristics: the average node degree is higher and shortest paths usually have only few arcs. We propose A* algorithms for each of the problem variants. In particular, for the third problem, we introduce an application-specific "super-optimal wind" potential function that overestimates optimal wind conditions on each arc, and establish a linear error bound. We compare the performance of our methods with the standard Dijkstra algorithm and the Contraction Hierarchies (CHs) algorithm. Our computational results on real world instances show that CHs do not perform as well as on road networks. On the other hand, A* guided by our potentials yields very good results. In particular, for the case of piecewise linear travel time functions, we achieve query times about 15 times shorter than CHs.}, language = {en} } @misc{FischerSchlechte2015, author = {Fischer, Frank and Schlechte, Thomas}, title = {Comparing two dual relaxations of large scale train timetabling problems}, issn = {1438-0064}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-56068}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Railway transportation and in particular train timetabling is one of the basic and source application areas of combinatorial optimization and integer programming. We will discuss two well established modeling techniques for the train timetabling problem. In this paper we focus on one major ingredient - the bounding by dual relaxations. We compare two classical dual relaxations of large scale time expanded train timetabling problems - the Lagrangean Dual and Lagrangean Decomposition. We discuss the convergence behavior and show limitations of the Lagrangean Decomposition approach for a configuration based model. We introduce a third dualization approach to overcome those limitations. Finally, we present promising preliminary computational experiments that show that our new approach indeed has superior convergence properties.}, language = {en} } @misc{BorndoerferBreuerGrimmetal.2017, author = {Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Breuer, Matthias and Grimm, Boris and Reuther, Markus and Schade, Stanley and Schlechte, Thomas}, title = {Timetable Sparsification by Rolling Stock Rotation Optimization}, issn = {1438-0064}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-65948}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Rolling stock optimization is a task that naturally arises by operating a railway system. It could be seen with different level of details. From a strategic perspective to have a rough plan which types of fleets to be bought to a more operational perspective to decide which coaches have to be maintained first. This paper presents a new approach to deal with rolling stock optimisation in case of a (long term) strike. Instead of constructing a completely new timetable for the strike period, we propose a mixed integer programming model that is able to choose appropriate trips from a given timetable to construct efficient tours of railway vehicles covering an optimized subset of trips, in terms of deadhead kilometers and importance of the trips. The decision which trip is preferred over the other is made by a simple evaluation method that is deduced from the network and trip defining data.}, language = {en} } @incollection{CaimiFischerSchlechte2018, author = {Caimi, Gabrio and Fischer, Frank and Schlechte, Thomas}, title = {Railway Track Allocation}, volume = {268}, booktitle = {Handbook of Optimization in the Railway Industry}, publisher = {Springer International Publishing}, isbn = {978-3-319-72152-1}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72153-8}, pages = {141 -- 160}, year = {2018}, abstract = {This chapter addresses the classical task to decide which train runs on which track in a railway network. In this context a track allocation defines the precise routing of trains through a railway network, which usually has only a limited capacity. Moreover, the departure and arrival times at the visited stations of each train must simultaneously meet several operational and safety requirements. The problem to find the 'best possible' allocation for all trains is called the track allocation problem (TTP). Railway systems can be modeled on a very detailed scale covering the behavior of individual trains and the safety system to a large extent. However, those microscopic models are too big and not scalable to large networks, which make them inappropriate for mathematical optimization on a network wide level. Hence, most network optimization approaches consider simplified, so called macroscopic, models. In the first part we take a look at the challenge to construct a reliable and condensed macroscopic model for the associated microscopic model and to facilitate the transition between both models of different scale. In the main part we focus on the optimization problem for macroscopic models of the railway system. Based on classical graph-theoretical tools the track allocation problem is formulated to determine conflict-free paths in corresponding time-expanded graphs. We present standard integer programming model formulations for the track allocation problem that model resource or block conflicts in terms of packing constraints. In addition, we discuss the role of maximal clique inequalities and the concept of configuration networks. We will also present classical decomposition approaches like Lagrangian relaxation and bundle methods. Furthermore, we will discuss recently developed techniques, e.g., dynamic graph generation. Finally, we will discuss the status quo and show a vision of mathematical optimization to support real world track allocation, i.e. integrated train routing and scheduling, in a data-dominated and digitized railway future.}, language = {en} } @misc{SchadeBorndoerferBreueretal.2017, author = {Schade, Stanley and Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Breuer, Matthias and Grimm, Boris and Reuther, Markus and Schlechte, Thomas and Siebeneicher, Patrick}, title = {Pattern Detection For Large-Scale Railway Timetables}, issn = {1438-0064}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-63390}, year = {2017}, abstract = {We consider railway timetables of our industrial partner DB Fernverkehr AG that operates the ICE high speed trains in the long-distance passenger railway network of Germany. Such a timetable covers a whole year with 364 days and, typically, includes more than 45,000 trips. A rolling stock rotation plan is not created for the whole timetable at once. Instead the timetable is divided into regular invariant sections and irregular deviations (e.g. for public holidays). A separate rotation plan with a weekly period can then be provided for each of the different sections of the timetable. We present an algorithmic approach to automatically recognize these sections. Together with the supplementing visualisation of the timetable this method has shown to be very relevant for our industrial partner.}, language = {en} } @misc{GilgKlugMartienssenetal.2017, author = {Gilg, Brady and Klug, Torsten and Martienssen, Rosemarie and Paat, Joseph and Schlechte, Thomas and Schulz, Christof and Seymen, Sinan and Tesch, Alexander}, title = {Conflict-Free Railway Track Assignment at Depots}, issn = {1438-0064}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-63843}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Managing rolling stock with no passengers aboard is a critical component of railway operations. In particular, one problem is to park the rolling stock on a given set of tracks at the end of a day or service. Depending on the parking assignment, shunting may be required in order for a parked train to depart or for an incoming train to park. Given a collection of tracks M and a collection of trains T with fixed arrival-departure timetable, the train assignment problem (TAP) is to determine the maximum number of trains from T that can be parked on M according to the timetable and without the use of shunting. Hence, efficiently solving the TAP allows to quickly compute feasible parking schedules that do not require further shunting adjustments. In this paper, we present two integer programming models for solving the TAP. To our knowledge, this is the first integrated approach that considers track lengths along with the three most common types of parking tracks. We compare these models on a theoretical level. We also prove that a decision version of the TAP is NP-complete, justifying the use of integer programming techniques. Using stochastic and robust modelling techniques, both models produce parking assignments that are optimized and robust according to random train delays. We conclude with computational results for both models, observing that they perform well on real timetables.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{BorndoerferLamorgeseKlugetal.2015, author = {Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Lamorgese, Leonardo and Klug, Torsten and Mannino, Carlo and Reuther, Markus and Schlechte, Thomas}, title = {Recent Success Stories on Optimization of Railway Systems}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the IAROR conference RailTokyo}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Planning and operating railway transportation systems is an extremely hard task due to the combinatorial complexity of the underlying discrete optimization problems, the technical intricacies, and the immense size of the problem instances. Because of that, however, mathematical models and optimization techniques can result in large gains for both railway cus- tomers and operators, e.g., in terms of cost reductions or service quality improvements. In the last years a large and growing group of researchers in the OR community have devoted their attention to this domain devel- oping mathematical models and optimization approaches to tackle many of the relevant problems in the railway planning process. However, there is still a gap to bridge between theory and practice, with a few notable exceptions. In this paper we address three success stories, namely, long-term freight train routing (part I), mid-term rolling stock rotation planning (part II), and real-time train dispatching (part III). In each case, we describe real-life, successful implementations. We will dis- cuss the individual problem setting, survey the optimization literature, and focus on particular aspects addressed by the mathematical models. We demonstrate on concrete applications how mathematical optimization can support railway planning and operations. This gives proof that math- ematical optimization can support the planning of rolling stock resources. Thus, mathematical models and optimization can lead to a greater effi- ciency of railway operations and will serve as a powerful and innovative tool to meet recent challenges of the railway industry.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{KlugJunoszaSzaniawskiKwasiborskietal.2015, author = {Klug, Torsten and Junosza-Szaniawski, Konstanty and Kwasiborski, Slawomir and F{\"u}genschuh, Armin and Schlechte, Thomas}, title = {Fastest, Average and Quantile Schedule}, booktitle = {SOFSEM 2015: Theory and Practice of Computer Science}, publisher = {Springer Berlin Heidelberg}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-662-46078-8_17}, pages = {201 -- 216}, year = {2015}, abstract = {We consider problems concerning the scheduling of a set of trains on a single track. For every pair of trains there is a minimum headway, which every train must wait before it enters the track after another train. The speed of each train is also given. Hence for every schedule - a sequence of trains - we may compute the time that is at least needed for all trains to travel along the track in the given order. We give the solution to three problems: the fastest schedule, the average schedule, and the problem of quantile schedules. The last problem is a question about the smallest upper bound on the time of a given fraction of all possible schedules. We show how these problems are related to the travelling salesman problem. We prove NP-completeness of the fastest schedule problem, NP-hardness of quantile of schedules problem, and polynomiality of the average schedule problem. We also describe some algorithms for all three problems. In the solution of the quantile problem we give an algorithm, based on a reverse search method, generating with polynomial delay all Eulerian multigraphs with the given degree sequence and a bound on the number of such multigraphs. A better bound is left as an open question.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{FischerSchlechte2015, author = {Fischer, Frank and Schlechte, Thomas}, title = {Comparing two dual relaxations of large scale train timetabling problems}, booktitle = {Proceedings of Conference on Advanced Systems in Public Transport 2015}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Railway transportation and in particular train timetabling is one of the basic and source application areas of combinatorial optimization and integer programming. We will discuss two well established modeling techniques for the train timetabling problem. In this paper we focus on one major ingredient - the bounding by dual relaxations. We compare two classical dual relaxations of large scale time expanded train timetabling problems - the Lagrangean Dual and Lagrangean Decomposition. We discuss the convergence behavior and show limitations of the Lagrangean Decomposition approach for a configuration based model. We introduce a third dualization approach to overcome those limitations. Finally, we present promising preliminary computational experiments that show that our new approach indeed has superior convergence properties.}, language = {en} } @misc{HeinzStephanSchlechte2009, author = {Heinz, Stefan and Stephan, R{\"u}diger and Schlechte, Thomas}, title = {Solving Steel Mill Slab Problems with Branch and Price}, issn = {1438-0064}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-11260}, number = {09-14}, year = {2009}, abstract = {The steel mill slab design problem from the CSPLib is a binpacking problem that is motivated by an application of the steel industry and that has been widely studied in the constraint programming community. Recently, several people proposed new models and methods to solve this problem. A steel mill slab library was created which contains 380 instances. A closely related binpacking problem called multiple knapsack problem with color constraints, originated from the same industrial problem, were discussed in the integer programming community. In particular, a simple integer programming for this problem has been given by Forrest et al. [3]. The aim of this paper is to bring these different studies together. Moreover, we adopt the model of [3] for the steel mill slab problem. Using a state of the art integer program solver, this model is capable to solve all instances of the steel mill slab library, mostly in less than one second, to optimality. We improved, thereby, the solution value of 76 instances.}, language = {en} } @misc{BorndoerferMuraSchlechte2008, author = {Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Mura, Annette and Schlechte, Thomas}, title = {Vickrey Auctions for Railway Tracks}, issn = {1438-0064}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-10855}, number = {08-34}, year = {2008}, abstract = {We consider an auction of slots to run trains through a railway network. In contrast to the classical setting for combinatorial auctions, there is not only competition for slots, but slots can mutually exclude each other, such that general conflict constraints on bids arise. This turns the winner determination problem associated with such an auction into a complex combinatorial optimization problem. It also raises a number of auction design questions, in particular, on incentive compatibilty. We propose a single-shot second price auction for railway slots, the Vickrey Track Auction (VTA). We show that this auction is incentive compatible, i.e., rational bidders are always motivated to bid their true valuation, and that it produces efficient allocations, even in the presence of constraints on allocations. These properties are, however, lost when rules on the submission of bids such as, e.g., lowest bids, are imposed. Our results carry over to generalized" Vickrey auctions with combinatorial constraints.}, language = {en} } @misc{BorndoerferReutherSchlechte2014, author = {Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Reuther, Markus and Schlechte, Thomas}, title = {A Coarse-To-Fine Approach to the Railway Rolling Stock Rotation Problem}, issn = {1438-0064}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-51009}, year = {2014}, abstract = {We propose a new coarse-to-fine approach to solve certain linear programs by column generation. The problems that we address contain layers corresponding to different levels of detail, i.e., coarse layers as well as fine layers. These layers are utilized to design efficient pricing rules. In a nutshell, the method shifts the pricing of a fine linear program to a coarse counterpart. In this way, major decisions are taken in the coarse layer, while minor details are tackled within the fine layer. We elucidate our methodology by an application to a complex railway rolling stock rotation problem. We provide comprehensive computational results that demonstrate the benefit of this new technique for the solution of large scale problems.}, language = {en} } @misc{BorndoerferKarbsteinMehrgardtetal.2014, author = {Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Karbstein, Marika and Mehrgardt, Julika and Reuther, Markus and Schlechte, Thomas}, title = {The Cycle Embedding Problem}, issn = {1438-0064}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-28697-6_65}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-52788}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Given two hypergraphs, representing a fine and a coarse "layer", and a cycle cover of the nodes of the coarse layer, the cycle embedding problem (CEP) asks for an embedding of the coarse cycles into the fine layer. The CEP is NP-hard for general hypergraphs, but it can be solved in polynomial time for graphs. We propose an integer rogramming formulation for the CEP that provides a complete escription of the CEP polytope for the graphical case. The CEP comes up in railway vehicle rotation scheduling. We present computational results for problem instances of DB Fernverkehr AG that justify a sequential coarse-first-fine-second planning approach.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{BorndoerferMehrgardtReutheretal.2014, author = {Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Mehrgardt, Julika and Reuther, Markus and Schlechte, Thomas and Waas, Kerstin}, title = {Re-Optimization of Rolling Stock Rotations}, edition = {Operations Research Proceedings 2013}, publisher = {Springer International Publishing}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-07001-8_8}, pages = {49 -- 55}, year = {2014}, abstract = {The Rolling Stock Rotation Problem is to schedule rail vehicles in order to cover timetabled trips by a cost optimal set of vehicle rotations. The problem integrates several facets of railway optimization, such as vehicle composition, maintenance constraints, and regularity aspects. In industrial applications existing vehicle rotations often have to be re-optimized to deal with timetable changes or construction sites. We present an integrated modeling and algorithmic approach to this task as well as computational results for industrial problem instances of DB Fernverkehr AG.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{BlancoSchlechte2014, author = {Blanco, Marco and Schlechte, Thomas}, title = {Analysis of Micro-Macro Transformations of Railway Networks}, booktitle = {Operations Research Proceedings 2013}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-07001-8_6}, pages = {37 -- 42}, year = {2014}, abstract = {A common technique in the solution of large or complex optimization problems is the use of micro-macro transformations. In this paper, we carry out a theoretical analysis of such transformations for the track allocation problem in railway networks. We prove that the cumulative rounding technique of Schlechte et al. satisfies two of three natural optimality criteria and that this performance cannot be improved. We also show that under extreme circumstances, this technique can perform inconveniently by underestimating the global optimal value.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{SagnolBorndoerferSchlechteetal.2014, author = {Sagnol, Guillaume and Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Schlechte, Thomas and Swarat, Elmar}, title = {The Price of Spite in Spot-checking games}, volume = {8768}, booktitle = {7th International Symposium on Algorithmic Game Theory (SAGT'2014)}, editor = {Lavi, Ron}, publisher = {Springer}, isbn = {978-3-662-44802-1}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-662-44803-8}, pages = {293}, year = {2014}, abstract = {We introduce the class of spot-checking games (SC games). These games model problems where the goal is to distribute fare inspectors over a toll network. Although SC games are not zero-sum, we show that a Nash equilibrium can be computed by linear programming. The computation of a strong Stackelberg equilibrium is more relevant for this problem, but we show that this is NP-hard. However, we give some bounds on the \emph{price of spite}, which measures how the payoff of the inspector degrades when committing to a Nash equilibrium. Finally, we demonstrate the quality of these bounds for a real-world application, namely the enforcement of a truck toll on German motorways.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{SchadeBorndoerferBreueretal.2017, author = {Schade, Stanley and Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Breuer, Matthias and Grimm, Boris and Reuther, Markus and Schlechte, Thomas and Siebeneicher, Patrick}, title = {Pattern Detection For Large-Scale Railway Timetables}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the IAROR conference RailLille}, year = {2017}, abstract = {We consider railway timetables of our industrial partner DB Fernverkehr AG that operates the ICE high speed trains in the long-distance passenger railway network of Germany. Such a timetable covers a whole year with 364 days and, typically, includes more than 45,000 trips. A rolling stock rotation plan is not created for the whole timetable at once. Instead the timetable is divided into regular invariant sections and irregular deviations (e.g. for public holidays). A separate rotation plan with a weekly period can then be provided for each of the different sections of the timetable. We present an algorithmic approach to automatically recognize these sections. Together with the supplementing visualisation of the timetable this method has shown to be very relevant for our industrial partner.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{BorndoerferReutherSchlechteetal.2015, author = {Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Reuther, Markus and Schlechte, Thomas and Schulz, Christof and Swarat, Elmar and Weider, Steffen}, title = {Duty Rostering in Public Transport - Facing Preferences, Fairness, and Fatigue}, booktitle = {Proceedings of Conference on Advanced Systems in Public Transport 2015 (CASPT2015)}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Duty rostering problems occur in different application contexts and come in different flavors. They give rise to very large scale integer programs which ypically have lots of solutions and extremely fractional LP relaxations. In such a situation, heuristics can be a viable algorithmic choice. We propose an mprovement method of the Lin-Kernighan type for the solution of duty rostering problems. We illustrate its versatility and solution quality on three different applications in public transit, vehicle routing, and airline rostering with a focus on the management of preferences, fairness, and fatigue, respectively.}, language = {en} } @article{BorndoerferReutherSchlechteetal.2016, author = {Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Reuther, Markus and Schlechte, Thomas and Waas, Kerstin and Weider, Steffen}, title = {Integrated Optimization of Rolling Stock Rotations for Intercity Railways}, volume = {50}, journal = {Transportation Science}, number = {3}, doi = {10.1287/trsc.2015.0633}, pages = {863 -- 877}, year = {2016}, abstract = {This paper proposes a highly integrated solution approach for rolling stock planning problems in the context of long distance passenger traffic between cities. The main contributions are a generic hypergraph-based mixed-integer programming model for the considered rolling stock rotation problem and an integrated algorithm for its solution. The newly developed algorithm is able to handle a large spectrum of industrial railway requirements, such as vehicle composition, maintenance constraints, infrastructure capacities, and regularity aspects. We show that our approach has the power to produce rolling stock rotations that can be implemented in practice. In this way, the rolling stock rotations at the largest German long distance operator Deutsche Bahn Fernverkehr AG could be optimized by an automated system utilizing advanced mathematical programming techniques.}, language = {en} } @article{BlancoBorndoerferBrueckneretal.2015, author = {Blanco, Marco and Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Br{\"u}ckner, Michael and Hoang, Nam-Dung and Schlechte, Thomas}, title = {On the Path Avoiding Forbidden Pairs Polytope}, volume = {50}, journal = {Electronic Notes in Discrete Mathematics}, doi = {10.1016/j.endm.2015.07.057}, pages = {343 -- 348}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Given a directed, acyclic graph, a source and a sink node, and a set of forbidden pairs of arcs, the path avoiding forbidden pairs (PAFP) problem is to find a path that connects the source and sink nodes and contains at most one arc from each forbidden pair. The general version of the problem is NP-hard, but it becomes polynomially solvable for certain topological configurations of the pairs. We present the first polyhedral study of the PAFP problem. We introduce a new family of valid inequalities for the PAFP polytope and show that they are sufficient to provide a complete linear description in the special case where the forbidden pairs satisfy a disjointness property. Furthermore, we show that the number of facets of the PAFP polytope is exponential in the size of the graph, even for the case of a single forbidden pair.}, language = {en} } @article{BorndoerferGrimmReutheretal.2017, author = {Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Grimm, Boris and Reuther, Markus and Schlechte, Thomas}, title = {Template-based Re-optimization of Rolling Stock Rotations}, journal = {Public Transport}, publisher = {Springer}, doi = {10.1007/s12469-017-0152-4}, pages = {1 -- 19}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Rolling stock, i.e., the set of railway vehicles, is among the most expensive and limited assets of a railway company and must be used efficiently. We consider in this paper the re-optimization problem to recover from unforeseen disruptions. We propose a template concept that allows to recover cost minimal rolling stock rotations from reference rotations under a large variety of operational requirements. To this end, connection templates as well as rotation templates are introduced and their application within a rolling stock rotation planning model is discussed. We present an implementation within the rolling stock rotation optimization framework rotor and computational results for scenarios provided by DB Fernverkehr AG, one of the leading railway operators in Europe.}, language = {en} } @misc{BorndoerferSagnolSchlechteetal.2013, author = {Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Sagnol, Guillaume and Schlechte, Thomas and Swarat, Elmar}, title = {Optimal Toll Enforcement - an Integration of Vehicle Routing and Duty Rostering}, issn = {1438-0064}, doi = {10.1007/s10479-016-2152-1}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-45107}, year = {2013}, abstract = {We present the problem of planning mobile tours of inspectors on German motorways to enforce the payment of the toll for heavy good trucks. This is a special type of vehicle routing problem with the objective to conduct as good inspections as possible on the complete network. In addition, the crews of the tours have to be scheduled. Thus, we developed a personalized crew rostering model. The planning of daily tours and the rostering are combined in a novel integrated approach and formulated as a complex and large scale Integer Program. The paper focuses first on different requirements for the rostering and how they can be modeled in detail. The second focus is on a bicriterion analysis of the planning problem to find the balance between the control quality and the roster acceptance. On the one hand the tour planning is a profit maximization problem and on the other hand the rostering should be made in a employee friendly way. Finally, computational results on real-world instances show the practicability of our method.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{BorndoerferReutherSchlechte2014, author = {Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Reuther, Markus and Schlechte, Thomas}, title = {A Coarse-To-Fine Approach to the Railway Rolling Stock Rotation Problem}, volume = {42}, booktitle = {14th Workshop on Algorithmic Approaches for Transportation Modelling, Optimization, and Systems}, doi = {10.4230/OASIcs.ATMOS.2014.79}, pages = {79 -- 91}, year = {2014}, abstract = {We propose a new coarse-to-fine approach to solve certain linear programs by column generation. The problems that we address contain layers corresponding to different levels of detail, i.e., coarse layers as well as fine layers. These layers are utilized to design efficient pricing rules. In a nutshell, the method shifts the pricing of a fine linear program to a coarse counterpart. In this way, major decisions are taken in the coarse layer, while minor details are tackled within the fine layer. We elucidate our methodology by an application to a complex railway rolling stock rotation problem. We provide comprehensive computational results that demonstrate the benefit of this new technique for the solution of large scale problems.}, language = {en} } @misc{BorndoerferLoebelReutheretal.2012, author = {Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and L{\"o}bel, Andreas and Reuther, Markus and Schlechte, Thomas and Weider, Steffen}, title = {Rapid Branching}, issn = {1438-0064}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-14728}, number = {12-10}, year = {2012}, abstract = {We propose rapid branching (RB) as a general branch-and-bound heuristic for solving large scale optimization problems in traffic and transport. The key idea is to combine a special branching rule and a greedy node selection strategy in order to produce solutions of controlled quality rapidly and efficiently. We report on three successful applications of the method for integrated vehicle and crew scheduling, railway track allocation, and railway vehicle rotation planning.}, language = {en} } @misc{BorndoerferReutherSchlechteetal.2012, author = {Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Reuther, Markus and Schlechte, Thomas and Weider, Steffen}, title = {Vehicle Rotation Planning for Intercity Railways}, issn = {1438-0064}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-14731}, number = {12-11}, year = {2012}, abstract = {This paper provides a generic formulation for rolling stock planning problems in the context of intercity passenger traffic. The main contributions are a graph theoretical model and a Mixed-Integer-Programming formulation that integrate all main requirements of the considered Vehicle-Rotation-Planning problem (VRPP). We show that it is possible to solve this model for real-world instances provided by our industrial partner DB Fernverkehr AG using modern algorithms and computers.}, language = {en} } @article{SahinAhmadiBorndoerferetal.2020, author = {Sahin, Guvenc and Ahmadi, Amin and Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Schlechte, Thomas}, title = {Multi-period line planning with resource transfers}, volume = {119}, journal = {Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies}, doi = {10.1016/j.trc.2020.102726}, pages = {102726}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Urban transportation systems are subject to a high level of variation and fluctuation in demand over the day. When this variation and fluctuation are observed in both time and space, it is crucial to develop line plans that are responsive to demand. A multi-period line planning approach that considers a changing demand during the planning horizon is proposed. If such systems are also subject to limitations of resources, a dynamic transfer of resources from one line to another throughout the planning horizon should also be considered. A mathematical modelling framework is developed to solve the line planning problem with a cost-oriented approach considering transfer of resources during a finite length planning horizon of multiple periods. We use real-life public transportation network data for our computational results. We analyze whether or not multi-period solutions outperform single period solutions in terms of feasibility and relevant costs. The importance of demand variation on multi-period solutions is investigated. We evaluate the impact of resource transfer constraints on the effectiveness of solutions. We also study the effect of period lengths along with the problem parameters that are significant for and sensitive to the optimality of solutions.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{KlugReutherSchlechte2022, author = {Klug, Torsten and Reuther, Markus and Schlechte, Thomas}, title = {Does Laziness Pay Off? - A Lazy-Constraint Approach to Timetabling}, volume = {106}, booktitle = {22nd Symposium on Algorithmic Approaches for Transportation Modelling, Optimization, and Systems (ATMOS 2022)}, publisher = {Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik}, doi = {10.4230/OASIcs.ATMOS.2022.11}, pages = {11:1 -- 11:8}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Timetabling is a classical and complex task for public transport operators as well as for railway undertakings. The general question is: Which vehicle is taking which route through the transportation network in which order? In this paper, we consider the special setting to find optimal timetables for railway systems under a moving block regime. We directly set up on our work of [8 ], i.e., we consider the same model formulation and real-world instances of a moving block headway system. In this paper, we present a repair heuristic and a lazy-constraint approach utilizing the callback features of Gurobi, see [3]. We provide an experimental study of the different algorithmic approaches for a railway network with 100 and up to 300 train requests. The computational results show that the lazy-constraint approach together with the repair heuristic significantly improves our previous approaches.}, language = {en} }