There are financial incentives to solve scheduling issues in the UK. Trains must meet a schedule within time limits. Failure to maintain reliability at a regulatory 90.9% can mean the loss of the license to operate.
The UK interconnects with European networks via Eurostar, and the major hubs feed it. The tube runs trains every minute or two so connecting between these hubs, for example Waterloo to Kings Cross isn’t usually an issue. But arriving late at a hub can be very disruptive.
Middle managers, in europe generally, focused on targets don’t need to understand the math, but are in a competitive market that can require mathematicians to model and solve scheduling issues.
The UK interconnects with European networks via Eurostar, and the major hubs feed it. The tube runs trains every minute or two so connecting between these hubs, for example Waterloo to Kings Cross isn’t usually an issue. But arriving late at a hub can be very disruptive.
Middle managers, in europe generally, focused on targets don’t need to understand the math, but are in a competitive market that can require mathematicians to model and solve scheduling issues.
https://golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/2018/05/tropical_mathem...
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/late-network...