TY - CHAP A1 - Lindner, Niels A1 - Liebchen, Christian ED - Cacchiani, Valentina ED - Marchetti-Spaccamela, Alberto T1 - New Perspectives on PESP: T-Partitions and Separators T2 - 19th Symposium on Algorithmic Approaches for Transportation Modelling, Optimization, and Systems (ATMOS 2019) N2 - In the planning process of public transportation companies, designing the timetable is among the core planning steps. In particular in the case of periodic (or cyclic) services, the Periodic Event Scheduling Problem (PESP) is well-established to compute high-quality periodic timetables. We are considering algorithms for computing good solutions for the very basic PESP with no additional extra features as add-ons. The first of these algorithms generalizes several primal heuristics that had been proposed in the past, such as single-node cuts and the modulo network simplex algorithm. We consider partitions of the graph, and identify so-called delay cuts as a structure that allows to generalize several previous heuristics. In particular, when no more improving delay cut can be found, we already know that the other heuristics could not improve either. The second of these algorithms turns a strategy, that had been discussed in the past, upside-down: Instead of gluing together the network line-by-line in a bottom-up way, we develop a divide-and-conquer-like top-down approach to separate the initial problem into two easier subproblems such that the information loss along their cutset edges is as small as possible. We are aware that there may be PESP instances that do not fit well the separator setting. Yet, on the RxLy-instances of PESPlib in our experimental computations, we come up with good primal solutions and dual bounds. In particular, on the largest instance (R4L4), this new separator approach, which applies a state-of-the-art solver as subroutine, is able to come up with better dual bounds than purely applying this state-of-the-art solver in the very same time. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.4230/OASIcs.ATMOS.2019.2 VL - 75 SP - 2:1 EP - 2:18 PB - Schloss Dagstuhl--Leibniz-Zentrum fuer Informatik CY - Dagstuhl, Germany ER - TY - GEN A1 - Lindner, Niels A1 - Liebchen, Christian T1 - New Perspectives on PESP: T-Partitions and Separators N2 - In the planning process of public transportation companies, designing the timetable is among the core planning steps. In particular in the case of periodic (or cyclic) services, the Periodic Event Scheduling Problem (PESP) is well-established to compute high-quality periodic timetables. We are considering algorithms for computing good solutions for the very basic PESP with no additional extra features as add-ons. The first of these algorithms generalizes several primal heuristics that had been proposed in the past, such as single-node cuts and the modulo network simplex algorithm. We consider partitions of the graph, and identify so-called delay cuts as a structure that allows to generalize several previous heuristics. In particular, when no more improving delay cut can be found, we already know that the other heuristics could not improve either. The second of these algorithms turns a strategy, that had been discussed in the past, upside-down: Instead of gluing together the network line-by-line in a bottom-up way, we develop a divide-and-conquer-like top-down approach to separate the initial problem into two easier subproblems such that the information loss along their cutset edges is as small as possible. We are aware that there may be PESP instances that do not fit well the separator setting. Yet, on the RxLy-instances of PESPlib in our experimental computations, we come up with good primal solutions and dual bounds. In particular, on the largest instance (R4L4), this new separator approach, which applies a state-of-the-art solver as subroutine, is able to come up with better dual bounds than purely applying this state-of-the-art solver in the very same time. T3 - ZIB-Report - 19-35 KW - Periodic Event Scheduling Problem KW - Periodic Timetabling KW - Graph Partitioning KW - Graph Separators KW - Balanced Cuts Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-73853 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 - CHAP 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 T2 - 18th Workshop on Algorithmic Approaches for Transportation Modelling, Optimization, and Systems (ATMOS 2018) 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. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.4230/OASIcs.ATMOS.2018.16 VL - 65 SP - 16:1 EP - 16:15 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Lindner, Niels A1 - Liebchen, Christian ED - Voigt, Guido ED - Fliedner, Malte ED - Haase, Knut ED - Brüggemann, Wolfgang ED - Hoberg, Kai ED - Meissner, Jörn T1 - Incremental Heuristics for Periodic Timetabling T2 - Operations Research Proceedings 2023 N2 - We present incremental heuristics for the Periodic Event Scheduling Problem (PESP), the standard mathematical tool to optimize periodic timetables in public transport. The core of our method is to solve successively larger subinstances making use of previously found solutions. Introducing the technical notion of free stratifications, we formulate a general scheme for incremental heuristics for PESP. More practically, we use line and station information to create heuristics that add lines or stations one by one, and we evaluate these heuristics on instances of the benchmarking library PESPlib. This approach is indeed viable, and leads to new incumbent solutions for six PESPlib instances. Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-58405-3_59 SP - 461 EP - 467 PB - Springer Nature Switzerland CY - Cham ER - TY - GEN A1 - Lindner, Niels A1 - Liebchen, Christian T1 - Determining all integer vertices of the PESP polytope by flipping arcs N2 - We investigate polyhedral aspects of the Periodic Event Scheduling Problem (PESP), the mathematical basis for periodic timetabling problems in public transport. Flipping the orientation of arcs, we obtain a new class of valid inequalities, the flip inequalities, comprising both the known cycle and change-cycle inequalities. For a point of the LP relaxation, a violated flip inequality can be found in pseudo-polynomial time, and even in linear time for a spanning tree solution. Our main result is that the integer vertices of the polytope described by the flip inequalities are exactly the vertices of the PESP polytope, i.e., the convex hull of all feasible periodic slacks with corresponding modulo parameters. Moreover, we show that this flip polytope equals the PESP polytope in some special cases. On the computational side, we devise several heuristic approaches concerning the separation of cutting planes from flip inequalities. These produce better dual bounds for the smallest and largest instance of the benchmarking library PESPlib. T3 - ZIB-Report - 20-19 KW - Periodic Event Scheduling Problem KW - Periodic Timetabling KW - Mixed Integer Programming Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-78793 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Lindner, Niels A1 - Liebchen, Christian T1 - Incremental Heuristics for Periodic Timetabling N2 - We present incremental heuristics for the Periodic Event Scheduling Problem (PESP), the standard mathematical tool to optimize periodic timetables in public transport. The core of our method is to solve successively larger subinstances making use of previously found solutions. Introducing the technical notion of free stratifications, we formulate a general scheme for incremental heuristics for PESP. More practically, we use line and station information to create heuristics that add lines or stations one by one, and we evaluate these heuristics on instances of the benchmarking library PESPlib. This approach is indeed viable, and leads to new incumbent solutions for six PESPlib instances. T3 - ZIB-Report - 23-22 KW - Timetabling KW - Mixed-Integer Programming KW - Public Transport Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-92309 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Liebchen, Christian A1 - Swarat, Elmar ED - Fischetti, Matteo ED - Widmayer, Peter T1 - The Second Chvatal Closure Can Yield Better Railway Timetables T2 - ATMOS 2008 - 8th Workshop on Algorithmic Approaches for Transportation Modeling, Optimization, and Systems Y1 - 2008 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-15802 UR - http://drops.dagstuhl.de/opus/volltexte/2008/1580 PB - Schloss Dagstuhl - Leibniz-Zentrum fuer Informatik, Germany CY - Dagstuhl, Germany ER - TY - GEN A1 - Lindner, Niels A1 - Liebchen, Christian T1 - A two-stage model for periodic timetabling with fixed line activities N2 - The timetable is a central pillar of any public transportation system. Constructing and optimizing periodic timetables in terms of passenger comfort and operational efficiency leads to NP-hard optimization problems that are also computationally challenging in applications. The Periodic Event Scheduling Problem (PESP) as standard mathematical tool benefits from its succinct formulation and rich combinatorial structure, but suffers from poor linear programming relaxations and weak dual bounds. These difficulties persist in a reduced version, where driving and dwelling activities of the lines are assumed to be fixed. In this case, fixing the initial departure time of each line fully determines the timetable, and for each pair of lines, the resulting (weighted) transfer durations can be expressed in terms of a piecewise linear non-convex function in terms of the difference of the initial times. When the number of activities between two lines is bounded, this function can be computed in polynomial time. By inserting precomputed piecewise linear functions into a mixed-integer program with the initial departure times as variables, we introduce an equivalent formulation for reduced PESP instances. The model bears analogies with quadratic semi-assignment approaches and offers alternative ways to compute primal and dual bounds. We evaluate the computational behavior of our approach on realistic benchmarking instances. T3 - ZIB-Report - 25-14 Y1 - 2025 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-101234 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Borndörfer, Ralf A1 - Liebchen, Christian T1 - When Periodic Timetables are Suboptimal N2 - The timetable is the essence of the service offered by any provider of public transport'' (Jonathan Tyler, CASPT 2006). Indeed, the timetable has a major impact on both operating costs and on passenger comfort. Most European agglomerations and railways use periodic timetables in which operation repeats in regular intervals. In contrast, many North and South American municipalities use trip timetables in which the vehicle trips are scheduled individually subject to frequency constraints. We compare these two strategies with respect to vehicle operation costs. It turns out that for short time horizons, periodic timetabling can be suboptimal; for sufficiently long time horizons, however, periodic timetabling can always be done in an optimal way'. T3 - ZIB-Report - 07-29 KW - Taktfahrplan KW - Fahrplan KW - Nahverkehr KW - periodic timetable KW - trip timetable KW - public transport Y1 - 2007 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-9151 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Lindner, Niels A1 - Liebchen, Christian T1 - Timetable Merging for the Periodic Event Scheduling Problem N2 - We propose a new mixed integer programming based heuristic for computing new benchmark primal solutions for instances of the PESPlib. The PESPlib is a collection of instances for the Periodic Event Scheduling Problem (PESP), comprising periodic timetabling problems inspired by real-world railway timetabling settings, and attracting several international research teams during the last years. We describe two strategies to merge a set of good periodic timetables. These make use of the instance structure and minimum weight cycle bases, finally leading to restricted mixed integer programming formulations with tighter variable bounds. Implementing this timetable merging approach in a concurrent solver, we improve the objective values of the best known solutions for the smallest and largest PESPlib instances by 1.7 and 4.3 percent, respectively. T3 - ZIB-Report - 21-06 KW - Periodic Event Scheduling Problem KW - Periodic Timetabling KW - Railway Timetabling KW - PESPlib KW - Benchmark Solutions KW - Mixed Integer Programming Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-81587 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Lindner, Niels A1 - Liebchen, Christian ED - Huisman, Dennis ED - Zaroliagis, Christos D. T1 - Determining all integer vertices of the PESP polytope by flipping arcs T2 - 20th Symposium on Algorithmic Approaches for Transportation Modelling, Optimization, and Systems (ATMOS 2020) N2 - We investigate polyhedral aspects of the Periodic Event Scheduling Problem (PESP), the mathematical basis for periodic timetabling problems in public transport. Flipping the orientation of arcs, we obtain a new class of valid inequalities, the flip inequalities, comprising both the known cycle and change-cycle inequalities. For a point of the LP relaxation, a violated flip inequality can be found in pseudo-polynomial time, and even in linear time for a spanning tree solution. Our main result is that the integer vertices of the polytope described by the flip inequalities are exactly the vertices of the PESP polytope, i.e., the convex hull of all feasible periodic slacks with corresponding modulo parameters. Moreover, we show that this flip polytope equals the PESP polytope in some special cases. On the computational side, we devise several heuristic approaches concerning the separation of cutting planes from flip inequalities. We finally present better dual bounds for the smallest and largest instance of the benchmarking library PESPlib. Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.4230/OASIcs.ATMOS.2020.5 VL - 85 SP - 5:1 EP - 5:18 PB - Schloss Dagstuhl--Leibniz-Zentrum fuer Informatik CY - Dagstuhl, Germany ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Lindner, Niels A1 - Masing, Berenike A1 - Liebchen, Christian T1 - Integrierte Baufahrplanoptimierung auf dem Netz der S-Bahn Berlin T2 - HEUREKA'24 - Optimierung in Verkehr und Transport N2 - Zur Instandhaltung von Eisenbahnnetzen sind regelmäßig Baumaßnahmen erforderlich. Diese erfordern stets Anpassungen der Fahrpläne. Um den Fahrgästen trotz der Baumaßnahme weiterhin einen möglichst großen Teil des Regelangebotes bieten zu können, bewegen sich die resultierenden Baufahrpläne insbesondere in Schnellbahnnetzen mit ihren dichten Zugfolgen häufig nahe der Kapazitätsgrenze der Infrastruktur. Etablierte Verfahren zur Taktfahrplanoptimierung können diesen Anforderungen nicht genügen, da in der Praxis Anpassungen von Laufwegen der Linien, sowie der Gleisbelegungen häufig Teil der realisierten Lösungen sind. Für diese Aufgabe haben die Autoren zuletzt ein Optimierungsmodell vorgestellt, welches diese Möglichkeiten ausschöpft. In dem vorliegenden Beitrag wird erstmalig dessen Anwendung auf ein unmittelbar der Praxis der Baufahrplanung entnommenes Beispiel aus dem Netz der Berliner S-Bahn im Detail beschrieben. Y1 - 2024 VL - 002/140 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Lindner, Niels A1 - Liebchen, Christian A1 - Masing, Berenike T1 - Forward Cycle Bases and Periodic Timetabling T2 - 21st Symposium on Algorithmic Approaches for Transportation Modelling, Optimization, and Systems (ATMOS 2021) N2 - Periodic timetable optimization problems in public transport can be modeled as mixed-integer linear programs by means of the Periodic Event Scheduling Problem (PESP). In order to keep the branch-and-bound tree small, minimum integral cycle bases have been proven successful. We examine forward cycle bases, where no cycle is allowed to contain a backward arc. After reviewing the theory of these bases, we describe the construction of an integral forward cycle basis on a line-based event-activity network. Adding turnarounds to the instance R1L1 of the benchmark library PESPlib, we computationally evaluate three types of forward cycle bases in the Pareto sense, and come up with significant improvements concerning dual bounds. Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.4230/OASIcs.ATMOS.2021.2 VL - 96 SP - 2:1 EP - 2:14 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Lindner, Niels A1 - Liebchen, Christian A1 - Masing, Berenike T1 - Forward Cycle Bases and Periodic Timetabling N2 - Periodic timetable optimization problems in public transport can be modeled as mixed-integer linear programs by means of the Periodic Event Scheduling Problem (PESP). In order to keep the branch-and-bound tree small, minimum integral cycle bases have been proven successful. We examine forward cycle bases, where no cycle is allowed to contain a backward arc. After reviewing the theory of these bases, we describe the construction of an integral forward cycle basis on a line-based event-activity network. Adding turnarounds to the instance \texttt{R1L1} of the benchmark library PESPlib, we computationally evaluate three types of forward cycle bases in the Pareto sense, and come up with significant improvements concerning dual bounds. T3 - ZIB-Report - 21-18 KW - Periodic Timetabling KW - Cycle Bases KW - Mixed Integer Programming Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-82756 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Borndörfer, Ralf A1 - Liebchen, Christian ED - Kalcsics, Jörg ED - Nickel, Stefan T1 - When Periodic Timetables are Suboptimal T2 - Operations Research Proceedings 2007 Y1 - 2008 SP - 449 EP - 454 PB - SPRINGER ER - TY - GEN A1 - Masing, Berenike A1 - Lindner, Niels A1 - Liebchen, Christian T1 - Periodic Timetabling with Integrated Track Choice for Railway Construction Sites N2 - 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. T3 - ZIB-Report - 22-26 KW - Railway Timetabling KW - Periodic Timetabling KW - Periodic Event Scheduling KW - Train Routing KW - Turnarounds Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-88626 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Masing, Berenike A1 - Lindner, Niels A1 - Liebchen, Christian T1 - Integrating Line Planning for Construction Sites into Periodic Timetabling via Track Choice T2 - 23rd Symposium on Algorithmic Approaches for Transportation Modelling, Optimization, and Systems (ATMOS 2023) N2 - 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. Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.4230/OASIcs.ATMOS.2023.5 VL - 115 SP - 5:1 EP - 5:15 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Masing, Berenike A1 - Lindner, Niels A1 - Liebchen, Christian T1 - Periodic timetabling with integrated track choice for railway construction sites JF - Journal of Rail Transport Planning & Management N2 - 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. Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrtpm.2023.100416 VL - 28 SP - 100416 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lindner, Niels A1 - Liebchen, Christian T1 - Timetable merging for the Periodic Event Scheduling Problem JF - EURO Journal on Transportation and Logistics N2 - We propose a new mixed integer programming based heuristic for computing new benchmark primal solutions for instances of the PESPlib. The PESPlib is a collection of instances for the Periodic Event Scheduling Problem (PESP), comprising periodic timetabling problems inspired by real-world railway timetabling settings, and attracting several international research teams during the last years. We describe two strategies to merge a set of good periodic timetables. These make use of the instance structure and minimum weight cycle bases, finally leading to restricted mixed integer programming formulations with tighter variable bounds. Implementing this timetable merging approach in a concurrent solver, we improve the objective values of the best known solutions for the smallest and largest PESPlib instances by 1.7 and 4.3 percent, respectively. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejtl.2022.100081 VL - 11 SP - 100081 ER -