A next step in disruption management: combining operations research and complexity science

M.M. Dekker, R.N. van Lieshout, R.C. Ball, P.M. Bouman, S.C. Dekker, H.A. Dijkstra, R.M.P. Goverde, D. Huisman, D. Panja, A.A.M. Schaafsma, J.M. van den Akker

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Railway systems occasionally get into a state of being out-of-control, meaning that barely any train is running, even though the required resources (infrastructure, rolling stock and crew) are available. Because of the large number of affected resources and the absence of detailed, timely and accurate information, currently existing disruption management techniques cannot be applied in out-of-control situations. Most of the contemporary approaches assume that there is only one single disruption with a known duration, that all information about the resources is available, and that all stakeholders in the operations act as expected. Another limitation is the lack of knowledge about why and how disruptions accumulate and whether this process can be predicted. To tackle these problems, we develop a multidisciplinary framework combining techniques from complexity science and operations research, aiming at reducing the impact of these situations and-if possible-avoiding them. The key elements of this framework are (i) the generation of early warning signals for out-of-control situations, (ii) isolating a specific region such that delay stops propagating, and (iii) the application of decentralized decision making, more suited for information-sparse out-of-control situations.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)5-26
Number of pages22
JournalPublic Transport
Volume14
Issue number1
Early online dateFeb 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research has been funded by ProRail, Netherlands Railways (NS) and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), as part of the research programme Complexity in Transport & Logistics (project number 439.16.111).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).

Keywords

  • Complexity science
  • Operations research
  • Railway disruption management
  • Rescheduling

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