EURO 2025 Leeds
Abstract Submission

1476. How to mitigate natural disaster-based disruptions affecting urban rail transit networks: devising cost-effective strategies via bi-level programming

Invited abstract in session TC-17: Service Network Design: challenges and opportunities, stream Combinatorial Optimization.

Tuesday, 12:30-14:00
Room: Esther Simpson 2.08

Authors (first author is the speaker)

1. Annunziata Esposito Amideo
Quinn School of Business, University College Dublin
2. Stefano Starita
Sasin School of Management
3. Maria Paola Scaparra
Kent Business School, University of Kent

Abstract

Railway systems are considered critical infrastructures, as their malfunction, whether due to natural or man-made disasters, can have far-reaching adverse effects on entire communities. Therefore, the ability to assess railway system vulnerabilities and devise cost-effective protection strategies is of paramount importance. This work-in-progress aims to advance the state of the art in optimization for railway infrastructure protection by proposing a novel bi-level program in which a natural disaster affects an urban rail transit network and its components (i.e., stations and/or tracks), and the network operator must implement protection strategies to effectively mitigate the consequences of resulting disruptions. We also propose two additional variants of this model: (i) one with demand windows and (ii) one that is time-dependent with time windows. These models were designed with floods in mind as the natural disaster of interest; however, they can be adapted to other types of natural disasters. We present preliminary experimental results on grid-based generated test networks and extend our testing with a case study on the Central London Tube.

Keywords

Status: accepted


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