Service-Oriented Line Planning and Timetabling for Passenger Trains

An integrated line planning and timetabling model is formulated with the objective of minimizing both user inconvenience and operational costs. User inconvenience is modeled as the total time passengers spend in a railway system, including waiting at origin and transfer stations. The model is solved using a cross-entropy metaheuristic. The line plan and timetable of Israel Railways is used as a benchmark. Using the same amount of resources, the average journey time of passengers is reduced by 20%.