Optimised loading patterns for intermodal trains

Abstract

Abstract. This paper considers one important aspect of operations planning referred to hereafter as train planning. Train planning is the process of spatially assigning containers to specific wagons (also known as railcars) on an intermodal train. The spatial arrangement of containers on a train can have a significant influence over the amount of time and energy consumed in the handling of containers. Efficient train planning can also maximise utilisation of wagon carrying capacity. This study proposes a mixed-integer programming model to determine the arrangement of containers on a train to minimise a weighted sum of number of wagons required and equipment working time. Due to the large number of variables, the proposed model cannot be solved in a timely manner for practical problems. This is addressed by applying heuristic algorithms local search and simulated annealing.Discrete-event simulation of an intermodal terminal is used to evaluate the proposed methods and to illuminate various properties of the model.

An integrated model for the transshipment yard scheduling problem

“…It is assumed that each container can be stored on any railcar and weight restrictions are not considered. A similar approach is also discussed in Corry and Kozan (2008). Static and disjoint crane areas for problem 4 are investigated in Boysen and Fliedner (2010) for a bundle of trains with given parking positions to minimize the makespan of train processing.…”

Scheduling Freight Trains in Rail-Rail Transshipment Yards

“…However, only very few research papers deal with the scheduling problems perpetually arising during the daily operations of a transshipment yards. According to the hierarchical decomposition scheme of the overall scheduling problem (see Section 1) Bostel and Dejax (1998) as well as Corry and Kozan (2007) treat problem (iii) and provide scheduling procedures to determine the optimal positions of containers on inbound and outbound trains so that crane moves at the yard are minimized. Alicke (2002) provides a scheduling procedure to jointly cover problems (iv) and (v).…”

“…On the basis of a given set of parameters each single instance is generated as follows: For each single possible relationship between trains i ∈ I and j ∈ I according to parameter P rob it is randomly drawn whether train j carries containers dedicated to train i or not. If so, the number A ij of containers to be transshipped is randomly drawn (with equal distribution) out of the interval [1,10]. Finally, both objective weights are set to one: α 1 = α 2 = 1.…”

Simulation and optimisation of intermodal barge transport networks

“…Significant reduction of excess handling time could be achieved with a relatively small concession in mass distribution. The study is extended with the introduction of technical constraints and container types of various length (Corry and Kozan 2008). Gambardella et al (2001) split loading and unloading operations in an intermodal terminal into a resource allocation problem and a scheduling problem.…”