DISPLIB: Train Dispatching benchmark library

Given a set of trains traveling on a railway, the Train Dispatching Problem is the operational problem that occurs when some trains have become delayed with respect to their prescribed timetable, and we want to make routing and scheduling adjustments to minimize the total delay on the railway. Effective management of dense railway traffic using algorithms has proven to be very hard.

DISPLIB is a problem definition, a file format, and a set of problem instances with the aim of allowing researchers and engineers to better compare and benchmark their algorithms.

The first part of the development of the DISPLIB is the competition described below, which will be an occasion to collect problem instances from a variety of sources and validate the suitability of the problem format in practice. Later, we intend to organize problem instances on this web page, along with more details and classifications, with the intention of creating a standard benchmark suite for train dispatching algorithms.

DISPLIB 2025 Competition

The DISPLIB 2025 competition challenges you to advance the state-of-the-art in real-time train dispatching and contribute to more environmentally friendly transportation!

All the details are found in the files available below. This web page will be updated as the competition progresses, so please check back regularly if you are planning to participate.

No registration is needed — any team may submit new solutions to the organizers at any point before the deadline by sending an email to <displib2025competition@gmail.com>. We encourage teams not to send updates more frequently than once a week. A scoreboard for the Phase 1 instances will be maintained on this webpage. During Phase 2, the scoreboard will be kept hidden and each team will be required to submit a short report describing their algorithm. The final ranking will be decided by the competition committee based both on the results of the scoreboard and the quality/novelty of the report. See the competition document below for detailed instructions.

Timeline

• 2024-09-10: Competition announced at ODS conference 2024 and online channels.
• 2024-10-01: First set of problem instances published (Phase 1).
• 2025-01-31: Early submission deadline for the Phase 1 scoreboard (optional).
• 2025-02-03: Second set of problem instances will be published (Phase 2).
• 2025-04-30: Final submission deadline for all instances (Phase 1 and Phase 2).

Files

• DISPLIB 2025 competition and format (updated 2024-10-08)
  • (prev. version 2024-10-04) (prev. version 2024-10-02) (prev. version 2024-10-01) (prev. version 2024-09-06)
• Solution verification program (Python) (version 0.3 published 2024-10-08)
  • (v0.2 published 2024-09-06)
• Test instances (published 2024-09-06)
• Phase 1 instances (v1.1 updated 2024-10-08)
  • (v1.0 published 2024-10-01 had errors in the train references in the objective components of the line1_full instances)

Organizers

The competition is organized by Bjørnar Luteberget, Giorgio Sartor, Oddvar Kloster, and Carlo Mannino, and is funded by SINTEF . Get in touch with us by email if you find any errors or want to contribute new problem instances: <displib2025competition@gmail.com>