Tad Gonsalves and TakafumiShiozaki, Sophia University, Japan

This paper deals with the optimization of the capacity of a terminal railway station using the Ant Colony Optimization algorithm. The capacity of the terminal station is defined as the number of trains that depart from the station in unit interval of time. The railway capacity optimization problem is framed as a typical symmetrical Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP), with the TSP nodes representing the train arrival /departure events and the TSP total cost representing the total time-interval of the schedule. The application problem is then optimized using the ACO algorithm. The simulation experiments validate the formulation of the railway capacity problem as a TSP and the ACO algorithm produces optimal solutions superior to those produced by the domain experts.

Travelling Salesman Problem, Ant Colony Optimization, Capacity Problems, Meta-heuristic Optimization, Soft Computing.