FREIGHT NETWORK MODELING SYSTEM. VOLUME 1, FREIGHT NETWORK EQUILIBRIUM MODEL-THEORY AND VALIDATION

The Powerplant and Industrial Fuel Use Act of 1978 empowered the US Department of Energy to prohibit the use of oil and natural gas in powerplants and major fuel-burning installations. The legislation requires that these powerplants convert to coal or seek exemptions. Such regionwide conversions to the use of coal raise the question of whether the existing transportation system possesses sufficient capacity to deal with the expected increase in from the anticipated increased coal haulage can only be determined from a careful analysis of the intermodal freight network. This need motivated the development of the intermodal freight network model described in this report. The application of this freight model to the study of coal transportation impacts resulting from conversions in the Northeast is described in Friesz et al. (1981a), and those resulting from conversions in Florida in Tobin et al. (1983). The purpose of this report is to present the theoretical development of the model and its validation. This work is intended to develop and validate a model of the freight system that is able to: substantially replicate the performance of the freight transportation system by realistically representing the behavior of its principal decision-makers, shippers, and carriers, and how they interact with one another; be applicable to a full range of policy questions by further distinguishing between the behavior of shippers who need to be represented as individuals and those whose identities are merged to form spatially aggregated groups; be easily applied to important planning issues by not requiring data that is neither already available nor readily obtainable; and be repeatedly used to analyze many possible scenarios or solve very large problems by having an efficient solution algorithm that is inexpensive to implement. 14 figures, 7 tables.

  • Corporate Authors:

    Argonne National Laboratory

    9700 South Cass Avenue
    Argonne, IL  United States  60439
  • Publication Date: 1984-4

Media Info

  • Features: Figures; References; Tables;
  • Pagination: 115 p.

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00390671
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Report/Paper Numbers: ANL/ER-TM-84-1(V1)
  • Files: TRIS
  • Created Date: Jan 30 1985 12:00AM