Applied Railway Optimization in Production Planning at DSB-S-tog - Tasks, Tools and Challenges

Efficient public transportation is becoming increasingly vital for modern capitals. DSB S-tog a/s is the major supplier of rail traffic on the infrastructure of the city-rail network in Copenhagen. S-tog has experienced a demand for increasing volume and quality of the transportation offered to the customers, and has concurrently been met with demands for higher efficiency in the daily operation. The plans of timetable, rolling stock and crew must hence allow for a high level of customer service, be efficient, and be robust against disturbances of operations. It is a highly non-trivial task to meet these conflicting goals. S-tog has therefore on the strategic level decided to use software with optimization capabilities in the planning processes. We describe the current status for each activity using optimization or simulation as a tool: Timetable evaluation, rolling stock planning, and crew scheduling. In addition we describe on-going efforts in using mathematical models in activities such as timetable design and work-force planning. We also identify some organizatorial key factors, which have paved the way for extended use of optimization methods in railway production planning.