2026-10-04T04:25:58Z https://drops.dagstuhl.de/oai

oai:drops-oai.dagstuhl.de:27799 2026-10-02T13:57:40Z ddc:004 open_access

Time-Aware A* for Optimal Train Routing on Moving Block Systems Engels, Stefan Wille, Robert ETCS European Train Control System Train Routing Moving Block A* Search Space Reduction Munich Train Control Toolkit Railway networks are operating at their capacity limits. Modern control systems allow for shorter train-following times on existing infrastructure, resulting in faster travel times and higher capacity. As new degrees of freedom emerge, developing effective and flexible algorithms becomes essential to incorporate these advancements into the planning process. Previously, a flexible method for generating provably optimal timetables using A* search has been proposed. However, in practice, the algorithm spends significant time exploring states that yield no new information. This work addresses this issue and shows that transforming the state space into a (directed) tree drastically reduces runtime and enhances scalability, particularly with respect to the number of trains. The implementation is available open-source as part of the Munich Train Control Toolkit on GitHub at https://github.com/cda-tum/mtct. Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik Stefan Engels and Robert Wille 2026 Is Part Of OASIcs, Volume 147, 26th Symposium on Algorithmic Approaches for Transportation Modelling, Optimization, and Systems (ATMOS 2026) InProceedings Text doc-type:ResearchArticle publishedVersion application/pdf doi:10.4230/OASIcs.ATMOS.2026.3 urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-277992 https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/OASIcs.ATMOS.2026.3 eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode