Integrated Passenger and Freight Train Planning on Shared-Use Corridors

• Published in: Transportation science Vol. 52; no. 6; pp. 1376 - 1390
• Main Authors: Ursavas, E, Zhu, Stuart X
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Baltimore INFORMS 01-11-2018; Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences
• Subjects: Analysis; Consolidation; Decision making; Design and construction; Freight; freight consolidation; Freight trains; Incentives; Infrastructure; integrated passenger and freight train planning; Joint use; Management; Mathematical models; Non-vessel-operating common carriers; Operators; Passenger trains; Passengers; Rail transportation; Railroad transportation; Railroads; Railway tracks; Railways; shared-use corridors; Studies; Trains; Transportation corridors; Transportation terminals; Underground railroad; Netherlands
• ISSN: 0041-1655; 1526-5447
• DOI: 10.1287/trsc.2017.0796

Our study involves the decision-making problems that railway infrastructure managers face in a rail network with dedicated tracks and shared-use corridors. We will analyze the consolidation strategy for shared-use corridors, where the track serves passenger and freight trains. In the stochastic demand case, we will provide an analytical model for the railway infrastructure manager to compute the expected long-term profit using a consolidation system. We will pinpoint the different characteristics of passenger and freight trains, and analytically derive the optimum track allocation and consolidation time, together with the optimum price, in all such cases, using two different model structures, i.e., the additive and the multiplicative forms. We will extend our model further to consider the due-date requirements and volume incentives for railway operators. Our experiments will use realistic parameter values, based on the Dutch railway system.