Chapter1: Simulation of Rail Operations.- Chapter2: Capacity Assessment in Railway Networks.- Chapter3: Aggregation methods for railway network design based on lifted Benders Cuts.- Chapter4: Freight Train Routing.- Chapter5: Robust Train Timetabling.- Chapter6: Modern Challenges in Timetabling.- Chapter7: Railway Track Allocation.- Chapter8: Use of Optimization Tools for Routing in Rail Freight Transport.- Chapter9: Optimization of Railway Freight Shunting.- Chapter10: Optimization of Rolling Stock Rotations.- Chapter11: Railway Crew Management.- Chapter12: Train Dispatching.- Chapter13: Delay Propagation and Delay Management in Transportation Networks.

Ralf Borndörfer is a Professor of Discrete Mathematics at the FU Berlin, and Head of the Optimization Department at Zuse Institute, Berlin. He earned his Ph.D. in Mathematics, as well as his Habilitation in Mathematics, Mathematical Optimization and Public Transportation at the Technical University of Berlin.

Torsten Klug is a Research Assistant in Optimization at the Zuse Institute, Berlin. He earned his Diploma in Mathematics at the Technical University of Berlin.

Leonardo Lamorgese is a Researcher in Applied Mathematics in the Optimization Group at SINTEF ICT, Oslo, Norway. He earned his M.Sc. in Decision Science and Operations Research at the University of Rome, La Sapienza. His research interests include Transportation, Logistics, and Health Care and Sports Scheduling.

Carlo Mannino is a Senior Scientist at SINTEF ICT in Oslo, Norway and Professor of Operations Research at the University of Oslo. He earned his Ph.D. in Operations Research at the University of Rome, La Sapienza and was awarded the 2014 INFORMS Best Paper Award, Telecommunications Section, as well as the 2009 EURO Excellence in Practice Award and 2014 AIRO best application award for his work in railroad optimization.

Markus Reuther is an expert in the development of integrated optimization software with many years of experience in tour planning and railroad planning at the Zuse Institute, Berlin. He has successfully graduated and promoted on novel algorithmic methods for solving complex application problems specializing in railway optimization at the Technical University of Berlin.

Thomas Schlechte is a shareholder of LBW Optimization GmbH and was post-doctoral Research Fellow at the Zuse Institute, Berlin. He earned his Ph.D. on Railway Track Allocation Models and Algorithms at the Technical University of Berlin. He is a Board Member of the International Association of Railway Operations Research (IAROR).

This book promotes the use of mathematical optimization and operations research methods in rail transportation. The editors assembled thirteen contributions from leading scholars to present a unified voice, standardize terminology, and assess the state-of-the-art.

There are three main clusters of articles, corresponding to the classical stages of the planning process: strategic, tactical, and operational. These three clusters are further subdivided into five parts which correspond to the main phases of the railway network planning process: network assessment, capacity planning, timetabling, resource planning, and operational planning. Individual chapters cover:

Simulation

Capacity Assessment

Network Design

Train Routing

Robust Timetabling

Event Scheduling

Track Allocation

Blocking

Shunting

Rolling Stock

Crew Scheduling

Dispatching