The load planning problem for double-stack intermodal trains

Serena Mantovani, Gianluca Morganti, Nitish Umang, Teodor Gabriel Crainic, Emma Frejinger and Eric Larsen

European Journal of Operational Research, 2018, vol. 267, issue 1, 107-119

Abstract: This paper presents a general methodology that addresses the load planning problem for intermodal trains. We propose a model that can deal with single- or double-stack railcars as well as arbitrary containers-to-cars matching rules. Moreover, we model weight and center of gravity constraints, stacking rules and technical loading restrictions associated with specific container types and/or contents. We propose an integer linear programming (ILP) formulation whose objective is to choose the optimal subset of containers and the optimal way of loading them on outbound railcars so as to minimize the resulting loading cost. An extensive numerical study is conducted. It shows that ignoring center of gravity constraints and containers-to-cars matching rules may lead to an overestimation of the train capacity and to select load plans that are not feasible in practice. We also show that we can solve realistic instances to optimality in reasonable computational time using a commercial ILP solver.

Keywords: Transportation; Freight; Double-stack train loading; Load planning; Intermodal railway terminals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ejores:v:267:y:2018:i:1:p:107-119

DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2017.11.016

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