Recovery of disruptions in rapid transit networks

► We study the disruption management problem of rapid transit rail networks. ► We optimize in an integrated way the timetable and the rolling stock schedules. ► We deal with the effects of the disruption on the passenger demand. ► We carry out computational tests on realistic instances of a Spanish rail operator. This paper studies the disruption management problem of rapid transit rail networks. Besides optimizing the timetable and the rolling stock schedules, we explicitly deal with the effects of the disruption on the passenger demand. We propose a two-step approach that combines an integrated optimization model (for the timetable and rolling stock) with a model for the passengers’ behavior. We report our computational tests on realistic problem instances of the Spanish rail operator RENFE. The proposed approach is able to find solutions with a very good balance between various managerial goals within a few minutes.