The encyclopedia · Engineering & Operations · Operational decision · 2006–2009
Netherlands Railways rebuilt its 1970 timetable with OR, adding up to €70m a year.
When demand outgrew a 1970 timetable, NS used optimization to rebuild the whole schedule plus crew and rolling-stock plans, turning a constraint into capacity.
Netherlands Railways (NS)
the move
By the 2000s Dutch rail traffic had nearly doubled since 1970, but the network still ran a timetable drawn up that year; adding capacity meant very expensive infrastructure investment.
NS used sophisticated operations research to generate a brand-new timetable for about 5,500 daily trains, then used more OR to devise efficient schedules for crews and rolling stock, the two biggest cost lines for a passenger railway.
The new resource schedules and the additional passengers added about €40 million ($60 million) of annual profit, with the figure expected to reach €70 million ($105 million) as the schedule matured.
why it works
- The old timetable was a constraint, not an asset
- Crew and rolling stock dominate railway operating cost
- Rebuilding the network changes what a schedule can do
- Measured: about €40m rising toward €70m of annual profit
what transfers
When a rigid plan caps growth, an optimization-based redesign of the whole schedule can free capacity that patchwork cannot; it pays only if crew and stock are scheduled in the same redesign.
what came after
The new timetable carried more trains and more passengers with better punctuality on the same infrastructure, and the tools and methods became reusable for future timetable, crew and rolling-stock planning.
references
- The new Dutch timetable: The OR revolution (record)
- The New Dutch Timetable: The OR Revolution (abstract)
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