Routing Passengers while Timetabling Based on Promises from Line Planning: A Logic-Based Benders Approach

Abstract

Effective line planning and timetabling are critical for enhancing public transport efficiency and passenger satisfaction. We propose a Logic-Based Benders decomposition approach to optimise a timetable for a passenger railway system based on the promises made in earlier planning stages. Our approach ensures that the promised travel times and transfers are available and passenger routes are chosen according to the shortest available path. We test this approach on real-world data from the Rhätische Bahn railway system, demonstrating promising results. The proposed approach has shown to be valuable for optimising transfers, improving efficiency and passenger satisfaction, and reducing travel times. The method has limitations, including the inability to consider multiple connections per origin-destination pair, adaptation time at the origin station, and crowding. Further research can focus on improving and extending the model’s performance to include these factors.