Scheduling Direct and Indirect Trains and Containers in an Intermodal Setting

Alexandra M. Newman and Candace Arai Yano
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Alexandra M. Newman: Division of Economics and Business, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado 80401
Candace Arai Yano: Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720

Transportation Science, 2000, vol. 34, issue 3, 256-270

Abstract: The focus of our research is on rail transportation of intermodal containers. We address the problem of determining day-of-week schedules for both direct and indirect (via a hub) trains and allocating containers to these trains for the rail (linehaul) portion of the intermodal trip. The goal is to minimize operating costs, including a fixed charge for each train, variable transportation and handling costs for each container and yard storage costs, while meeting on-time delivery requirements. We formulate the problem as an integer program and develop a novel decomposition procedure to find near-optimal solutions. We also develop a method to provide relatively tight bounds on the objective function values. Finally, we compare our solutions to those obtained with heuristics designed to mimic current operations, and show that a savings of between 5 and 20% can be gained from using our solution procedure.

Date: 2000
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