Freight Railroad Service Network Design

Mervat Chouman () and Teodor Gabriel Crainic ()
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Mervat Chouman: Effat University
Teodor Gabriel Crainic: Université du Québec à Montréal

Chapter Chapter 13 in Network Design with Applications to Transportation and Logistics, 2021, pp 383-426 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Rail transportation provides economically-priced, environmentally-friendly, and timely freight transportation services at the regional, national, and international levels. To achieve this performance, railroads operate mostly according to a double consolidation policy, as cars are grouped into blocks, which are grouped into trains, and set up tactical operations plans specifying the train services and schedules to operate, the blocks to build at each terminal, the routing of blocks and cars, and the resource assignment to support these operations. Tactical planning makes up a very complex problem, with many facets and decisions linked in a web of economic, resource utilization, and time-performance objectives, limitations, and trade-offs. Operations Research provides the Service Network Design methodology to build the railroad tactical plan making the most efficient use of the railroad’s resources to achieve its economic and customer-service performance objectives. The chapter reflects this important relation between railroad planning and network design. It focuses on service network design models for railroad tactical planning, targeting both particular activities, such as car blocking and train makeup, and integrated network-wide planning processes.

Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-030-64018-7_13

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-64018-7_13

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