We would like to bring to your attention an exciting computational
competition on algorithms for train scheduling optimization!
We have collected real problem instances from various sources and combined them in a library called
DISPLIB with a simple but powerful file format. No previous knowledge on railway operations needed!
We hope to foster collaboration and competition among researchers, but also provide an open
dataset for everyone developing and benchmarking new train scheduling algorithms.
The competition starts now (October '24) and ends in April '25. The winners will be offered the
opportunity to present in a special session at the International Conference on Optimization and
Decision Science 2025 (ODS2025<https://www.airoconference.it/>) and be invited to submit an extended report to the Journal of Rail
Transport Planning and Management (JRTPM<https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-rail-transport-planning-and-management>).
You can find more information at https://displib.github.io/.
I hope you could help us spread the word and forward this message to whoever you think might be
interested in participating. We think this is particularly interesting for graduate students and
researchers, even if they have no previous experience on railway optimization problems.
Sincerely,
The DISPLIB2025 Competition organizing committee
(Oddvar Kloster, Bjørnar Luteberget, Carlo Mannino, Giorgio Sartor)