On the Complexity of Train Assignment Problems

  • Authors:

  • Thomas Erlebach;Martin Gantenbein;Daniel Hürlimann;Gabriele Neyer;Aris Pagourtzis;Paolo Penna;Konrad Schlude;Kathleen Steinhöfel;David Scot Taylor;Peter Widmayer

  • Affiliations:

  • Computer Engineering and Networks Laboratory, ETH Zentrum, Zürich, Switzerland 8092;Institute for Theoretical Computer Science, ETH Zentrum, Zürich, Switzerland 8092;Institute of Transportation, Traffic, Highway- and Railway-Engineering (IVT), ETH Hönggerberg, Zürich, Switzerland 8093;SMA and Partners Ltd., Transportation Engineers, Planners and Economists, Zürich, Switzerland 8050;Department of Computer Science, University of Liverpool, UK;Institute for Theoretical Computer Science, ETH Zentrum, Zürich, Switzerland 8092;Institute for Theoretical Computer Science, ETH Zentrum, Zürich, Switzerland 8092;GMD - FIRST, Berlin, Germany;Institute for Theoretical Computer Science, ETH Zentrum, Zürich, Switzerland 8092;Institute for Theoretical Computer Science, ETH Zentrum, Zürich, Switzerland 8092

  • Venue:
  • ISAAC '01 Proceedings of the 12th International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation
  • Year:
  • 2009

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Abstract

We consider a problem faced by train companies: How can trains be assigned to satisfy scheduled routes in a cost efficient way? Currently, many railway companies create solutions by hand, a timeconsuming task which is too slow for interaction with the schedule creators. Further, it is difficult to measure how efficient the manual solutions are. We consider several variants of the problem. For some, we give efficient methods to solve them optimally, while for others, we prove hardness results and propose approximation algorithms.