Stowage Plan Based Slot Optimal Allocation in Rail-Water Container Terminal

Abstract

To obtain an efficient and reasonable solution for slot allocation in rail-water container terminals, this paper develops storage optimal allocation model 1 to improve the yard space utilization, which is solved by a heuristic algorithm based on Tabu search. Model 2 is then built to reduce the relocation movements. A concept of fall-down problem in shunting operation plan is thus proposed to solve model 2. Models 1 and 2 are tested with numerical experiments. The results show that the yard space utilization increases by 50% approximately compared to the strategy of one train piling onto a fixed area called a subblock. Meanwhile the number of container relocation movements is less than five when using the fall-down problem strategy. Accordingly, the models and algorithms developed in this paper are effective to improve the yard space utilization and reduce the number of container relocation movements.