TY - JOUR A1 - Lindner, Niels A1 - Masing, Berenike T1 - On the split closure of the periodic timetabling polytope JF - Mathematical Programming N2 - 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. KW - Periodic event scheduling problem KW - Periodic timetabling KW - Split closure KW - Mixed-integer programming Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10107-025-02220-5 SN - 0025-5610 PB - Springer Science and Business Media LLC ER - TY - GEN A1 - Lindner, Niels A1 - Reisch, Julian T1 - Parameterized Complexity of Periodic Timetabling N2 - Public transportation networks are typically operated with a periodic timetable. The Periodic Event Scheduling Problem (PESP) is the standard mathematical modelling tool for periodic timetabling. Since PESP can be solved in linear time on trees, it is a natural question to ask whether there are polynomial-time algorithms for input networks of bounded treewidth. We show that deciding the feasibility of a PESP instance is NP-hard even when the treewidth is 2, the branchwidth is 2, or the carvingwidth is 3. Analogous results hold for the optimization of reduced PESP instances, where the feasibility problem is trivial. To complete the picture, we present two pseudo-polynomial-time dynamic programming algorithms solving PESP on input networks with bounded tree- or branchwidth. We further analyze the parameterized complexity of PESP with bounded cyclomatic number, diameter, or vertex cover number. For event-activity networks with a special -- but standard -- structure, we give explicit and sharp bounds on the branchwidth in terms of the maximum degree and the carvingwidth of an underlying line network. Finally, we investigate several parameters on the smallest instance of the benchmarking library PESPlib. T3 - ZIB-Report - 20-15 KW - Parameterized complexity KW - Periodic timetabling KW - Treewidth KW - Branchwidth KW - Carvingwidth KW - Periodic Event Scheduling Problem Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-78314 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Borndörfer, Ralf A1 - Hoppmann, Heide A1 - Karbstein, Marika A1 - Lindner, Niels T1 - Separation of Cycle Inequalities in Periodic Timetabling N2 - Cycle inequalities play an important role in the polyhedral study of the periodic timetabling problem. We give the first pseudo-polynomial time separation algo- rithm for cycle inequalities, and we give a rigorous proof for the pseudo-polynomial time separability of the change-cycle inequalities. Moreover, we provide several NP-completeness results, indicating that pseudo-polynomial time is best possible. The efficiency of these cutting planes is demonstrated on real-world instances of the periodic timetabling problem. T3 - ZIB-Report - 18-16 KW - Periodic timetabling KW - Cycle inequality KW - Change-cycle inequality Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-69746 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Borndörfer, Ralf A1 - Karbstein, Marika A1 - Liebchen, Christian A1 - Lindner, Niels T1 - A Simple Way to Compute the Number of Vehicles That Are Required to Operate a Periodic Timetable N2 - We consider the following planning problem in public transportation: Given a periodic timetable, how many vehicles are required to operate it? In [9], for this sequential approach, it is proposed to first expand the periodic timetable over time, and then answer the above question by solving a flow-based aperiodic optimization problem. In this contribution we propose to keep the compact periodic representation of the timetable and simply solve a particular perfect matching problem. For practical networks, it is very much likely that the matching problem decomposes into several connected components. Our key observation is that there is no need to change any turnaround decision for the vehicles of a line during the day, as long as the timetable stays exactly the same. T3 - ZIB-Report - 18-38 KW - Vehicle scheduling KW - Periodic timetabling KW - Bipartite matching Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-69688 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Borndörfer, Ralf A1 - Hoppmann, Heide A1 - Karbstein, Marika T1 - Passenger Routing for Periodic Timetable Optimization N2 - The task of periodic timetabling is to schedule the trips in a public transport system by determining arrival and departure times at every station such that travel and transfer times are minimized. To date, the optimization literature generally assumes that passengers do not respond to changes in the timetable, i.e., the passenger routes are fixed. This is unrealistic and ignores potentially valuable degrees of freedom. We investigate in this paper periodic timetabling models with integrated passenger routing. We show that different routing models have a huge influence on the quality of the entire system: Whatever metric is applied, the performance ratios of timetables w.r.t. to different routing models can be arbitrarily large. Computations on a real-world instance for the city of Wuppertal substantiate the theoretical findings. These results indicate the existence of untapped optimization potentials that can be used to improve the efficiency of public transport systems. T3 - ZIB-Report - 15-55 KW - Passenger routing KW - Periodic timetabling KW - Public transport Y1 - 2015 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-56739 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Borndörfer, Ralf A1 - Hoppmann, Heide A1 - Karbstein, Marika T1 - Timetabling and Passenger Routing in Public Transport T2 - Proceedings of Conference on Advanced Systems in Public Transport 2015 (CASPT2015) N2 - The task of timetabling is to schedule the trips in a public transport system by determining periodic arrival and departure times at every station. The goal is to provide a service that is both attractive for passengers and can be operated economically. To date, timetable optimization is generally done with respect to fixed passenger routes, i.e., it is assumed that passengers do not respond to changes in the timetable. This is unrealistic and ignores potentially valuable degrees of freedom. We investigate in this paper periodic timetabling models with integrated passenger routing. We propose several models that differ in the allowed passenger paths and the objectives. We compare these models theoretically and report on computations on real-world instances for the city of Wuppertal. KW - Passenger routing KW - Periodic timetabling KW - Public transport Y1 - 2015 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Borndörfer, Ralf A1 - Hoppmann, Heide A1 - Karbstein, Marika T1 - Timetabling and Passenger Routing in Public Transport T2 - Appeard in: Proceedings of Conference on Advanced Systems in Public Transport 2015 (CASPT2015) N2 - The task of timetabling is to schedule the trips in a public transport system by determining periodic arrival and departure times at every station. The goal is to provide a service that is both attractive for passengers and can be operated economically. To date, timetable optimization is generally done with respect to fixed passenger routes, i.e., it is assumed that passengers do not respond to changes in the timetable. This is unrealistic and ignores potentially valuable degrees of freedom. We investigate in this paper periodic timetabling models with integrated passenger routing. We propose several models that differ in the allowed passenger paths and the objectives. We compare these models theoretically and report on computations on real-world instances for the city of Wuppertal. T3 - ZIB-Report - 15-31 KW - Passenger routing KW - Periodic timetabling KW - Public transport Y1 - 2015 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-55305 SN - 1438-0064 ER -