STUDIES IN RAILROAD OPERATIONS AND ECONOMICS. VOLUME 5. MODELS FOR INVESTIGATING RAIL TRIP TIME RELIABILITY

The unreliability of the trip time of railroad freight shipments is often given as the reason for the railroads' loss of traffic to competing modes of transport. The report investigates various operating policies and practices affecting reliability through the use of two simulation models. A network model is developed which simulates the day-to-day movements of cars through a portion of rail network, while another model simulates the journey of a single car moving through a series of yards. The objectives of these models are similar; namely, to study the network effects on reliability of operating policies such as (a) holding outbound trains for more traffic, (b) cancelling outbound trains, (c) altering scheduled connection times at yards, and (d) running shorter more frequent trains between yards. Major conclusions are that railroad operating policies do have a substantial effect on car movement reliability.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • See also Volume 4, PB-244 121, and Volume 6, PB-244 123.
• Corporate Authors:

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  Transportation Systems Division
  Cambridge, MA  United States  02139

  Federal Railroad Administration

  Office of Policy and Program Development, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • FOLK, J F
• Publication Date: 1972-6

Media Info

• Pagination: 213 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Competition; Economic factors; Freight cars; Freight forwarders; Freight terminals; Freight traffic; Freight trains; Freight transportation; Intermodal terminals; Mathematical models; Motor carriers; Network analysis (Planning); Policy; Railroad cars; Railroad terminals; Railroad traffic; Railroad transportation; Railroads; Reliability; Scheduling; Simulation; Traffic delays; Transportation modes; Yard operations
• Old TRIS Terms: Cargo transportation; Freight forwarding; Operating strategies; Yard performance
• Subject Areas: Economics; Freight Transportation; Motor Carriers; Policy; Railroads; Terminals and Facilities;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00092230
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Technical Information Service
• Report/Paper Numbers: MIT-R72-40 Final Rpt., FRA/RPD-75/1.4
• Contract Numbers: DOT-FR-10006
• Files: NTIS, TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Oct 18 1976 12:00AM