The New Dutch Timetable : The OR Revolution - Paper Review

So, actually,,, this is for my final exam in class Network Flow and Application Model in NTUST. But, I don't want to keep it just in my disk.I think i can help people by give it online. Have fun to read the paper review guys.. ^.^
If you are my professor in class..."Dear Prof, I'm sorry I gave it online. But I know it can be useful for people. Because the class already over too. Thank you to teach us. I know better understanding now..hehe" *hope he won't mad at me..haha*

Interface (The Franz Edelman Award)
The New Dutch Timetable: The OR Revolution

Reviewed by : Intan Dzikria

Introduction

Public transport plays as an important mobility role and is indispensable to the economy and the public welfare. The backbone is National Passenger Railway System. Nederlandse Spoorwagen (NS) was a state-owned company, operating passenger and freight services and building and maintaining the railway infrastructure. The Netherland railway system is one of the most intensively used networks within Europe. NS transports the most passenger on a kilometer of railway line in Europe. Reducing greenhouse pollution is a benefit of reducing automobile travel. But, government doesn’t want to invest in new infrastructure.

Because of the amount of the passenger, NS scheduled more and larger train without changing the basic structure of the timetable. The consequences are further growth based on the existing timetable was impossible without significant investments in the infrastructure and train delays. But, the problems are easy to add more trains to an existing timetables, if we allow lower punctuality and simple to improve the punctuality by reducing the number of trains in an existing timetable.

So, the new timetable needed which have many rules like easy to remember on the most important lines in the western part of the country led to new commercial opportunities, A long-distance train and regional train that stops at the main stations only should arrive every 15 minutes, improve connection with the neighboring countries of Germany and Belgium, there is a high speed line between Amsterdam and Belgium, there is a betuwe freight line between the port of Rotterdam and Germany, and there are four parallel tracks between Amsterdam and Uthrect.

Modelling Timetable

Step by step to modelling timetable, are define a line system, calculate the timetable, construct rolling-stock, and construct crew schedules. The line system is the key input for the timetabling process, in which each line has an origin station and a final destination station. A frequency and a certain stopping pattern indicate the stations at which the trains on the line call.

The timetable describes the planned departure and arrival times of every train at every station. The model that used for timetable generation describes the cyclic timetabling problem in terms of the periodic event scheduling problem (PESP) constraints. So, CARDANS module developed to solve the PESP. CARDANS is based on constraint programming techniques. CARDANS improves the transfer times for the passangers at specifiec stations.

To provide good transfer opportunities for the passengers, trains preferably arrive (and depart) more or less at the same time and at adjacent platforms. When routes are undetermined, it means the timetable is incomplete. The station module developed to solve the problem of routing trains through a stations. CARDANS and STATIONS are the kernel of the automatic timetabling system, designer of etworkschedules (DONS). DONS contains a database for storing the data and the obtained timetable, provides an interface to the simulation model for networks (SIMONE) which is evaluate the robustness of a cyclic timetable that developed using DONS.

The goal in scheduling rolling stock is to allocate an appropriate amount of the appropriate rolling-stock type to each train in the given timetable. Each passenger must have a seat if the travel time is more than 15 minutes, all trains have a specific length limit (typically, the maximum is 12 or 15 carriages), and the number of train units available. The problems are the capacity insufficient, the capacity of a train exceeds the demand, and many shunting movements. Crew schedules is generated by using the TURNI system. Three important goals in crew scheduling are Efficiency, Acceptability, and Robustness.

Implementation

To implement the OR system, the Initial plan is buy automated timetabling software that consist some problems like no suitable software packages were available and external IT consultant failed to develop prototype. To face this problem, the solution is using DONS System with work in cooperation with scientific community to develop new methods to solve timetabling. Rolling stock problem is NS established internal OR group and the solution is Rolling stock allocation (ROSA) system developed by the internal OR group. The problems of crew scheduling is how to perform benchmark of commercially available software, then the solution is select TURNI system.

The timetable construction faced many things like 10 different line systems were created, use DONS to generate 1-hour schedule for each line, combine 2 best schedule using best aspects of both, manual modification to accommodate unfinished construction, and followed by planning of rolling-stock schedule and crew schedule using ROSA and TURNI. There are several challenges when during the process, they are negative public reaction, unfinished construction, crew shortage, and longer travel times.

Portability, Impact, and Success

Several portability of this new timetable are the models is generic for solving cyclic timetabling problems, new rolling-stock scheduling systems under development, TURNI used for crew scheduling system, and they also used the tools to bid for contracts aboard, some success. NS gain profits in different way too such as fare increase, efficient resource schedules, and higher total annual profit.

The impact of the new timetable are for Dutch economy, 8 million Euro per year for every percentage-point increase in punctuality. Increase in railway transport will be possible without infrastructure that huge investments and facilitate the growing demand for transportation to the main cities during rush hour. Reduce the pressure on the roads into and inside cities and to replace car traffic by rail traffic and reducing the pollution from greenhouse gases.

Conclusion

In December 2006, Netherlands Railways introduced a completely new timetable. Facilitate the growth of railway network, improve the robustness of the timetable and fewer operational train delays. Constructing a railway timetable from scratch for about 5,500 daily trains and generating several timetables using sophisticated operations research techniques. It used innovative operations research tools to devise efficient schedules for rolling-stock and crew costs which are principal components of the costs of a passenger railway operator.

Profit approximately to be increase to 70 million Euro annually in coming year. Able to handle future transportation demand growth with same infrastructure. Encourage switching to rail transport, thus reducing the emission of greenhouse gases.