Using integer programming to solve the train-platforming problem

We consider the problem of assigning trains to the available tracks at a railway station, given the daily timetable and the structural and operational constraints. This train-platforming problem is a key problem in railway station operations, and for a large station, many working days are required for an expert planner to construct the train-platforming. This problem was studied by De Luca Cardillo and Mione, who formulated it as a graph-coloring problem. These authors propose to solve it by an efficient heuristic algorithm combined with reduction techniques. In this paper, we show that integer programming is a very interesting tool to exactly solve the train-platforming problem as formulated by De Luca Cardillo and Mione by a graph-coloring problem. The fact of being able to solve it in an exact way by using an integer-programming solver obviously has many advantages. Some computational results are reported.