An optimal management model for empty freight railcars in transport nodes

Abstract

The paper presents the actual problem of increasing the efficiency of empty railcars management in rail nodes. The problem lies in need to consider the several constraints. Firstly, railcars' owners are willing to load their rolling stock by specific goods for the given directions (consumers). Secondly, it is necessary to consider schedule and formation of trains between railway stations of the node when we developing the routes for movement of the empty railcars. Final constraint is based on compliance with the schedule of the railcars loading in the transport node. We propose the minimum of total time costs that railcar has spent in the specific transport node as the objective function. This problem is being sophisticated in terms of increased irregularity of railcar traffic flows, and as a result, it increases the loading factor of the individual railway stations in the transport node. Hence, it creates an uneven loading factor of railway stations in the node. In order to optimally manage empty railcars at rail nodes, both the mathematical model and its solving method are presented. One of the distinctive features of the developed model lies in the application of a fuzzy logic method to evaluate online the loading factor of railway stations in the rail node. Moreover, this model takes into account these evaluations by optimizing the distribution of empty railcars at the loading points. The present study puts forward the method and algorithm of the developed mathematical model for empty railcars management. They could additionally take into account the possibility to include empty railcars groups in the composition of trains moving on schedule within large railway nodes or in systems of railway transport at large industrial enterprises. The proposed model significantly reduces the complexity of operational planning of dispatchers for distributing the empty railcar traffic volumes. Furthermore, the developed model minimizes the total handling time of railcars in rail nodes and ensures the timely supply of empty railcars to the loading points.