S. Frisch
The Rail Cargo Austria (RCA) transports 113 million tons per year through the Austrian railway network. This requires many resources and cost-efficient strategies. The problem of obtaining a schedule for freight cars is typically solved in two steps. First, the Freight Car Routing Problem (FCRP) aims to ship all freight cars from their origins to their destinations while satisfying line and shunting yard capacities. After the freight car flows through the network are fixed, the Freight Train Scheduling Problem (FTSP) is solved by determining optimal departure and arrival times while travel time restrictions are satisfied. In this work, we develop an integrated mathematical model that solves the FCRP, the FTSP and additionally constructs an optimal routing matrix due to RCA's demands. While neither, solving the FCRP, solving the FTSP nor constructing a routing matrix is a novel idea, solving the combination of all three components in an integrated approach is. Additionally, we provide an extensive computational study based on real world instances derived from RCA. We consider utilization of trains, waiting times, shunting processes, and the effects of different routing strategies.
Keywords: Freight Car Routing, Network Optimization, Train Scheduling, Integer Linear Programing
Scheduled
FD3 Logistics, Transportation and Distribution Planning 2
June 11, 2021 2:45 PM
3 - TC Koopmans
