An Overview and Categorization of Approaches for Train Timetable Generation

Abstract

A train timetable is a crucial component of railway transportation systems as it directly impacts the system’s performance and the customer satisfaction. Various approaches can be found in the literature that deal with timetable generation. However, the approaches proposed in the literature differ significantly in terms of the use case for which they are in tended. Differences in objective function, timetable periodicity, and solution methods have led to a confusing number of works on this topic. Therefore, this paper presents a com pact literature review of approaches to train timetable generation. The reviewed papers are briefly summarized and categorized by objective function and periodicity. Special emphasis is given to approaches that have been applied to real-world railway data