Trolley Routing and Scheduling Strategy for Low-Viaduct Rail Transportation System with Double-Wide Yard Crane

Globalization and containerization have made it increasingly important for port terminals to seek solutions to improve operational efficiency. This paper investigates a Low Viaduct Rail Transportation System with a Double-Wide Yard Crane (LVRT) that has been implemented at a small number of container terminals in China. The LVRT system uses a double-wide yard crane which we will demonstrate increases the terminal's ability to handle containers by reducing the expected travel time between the vessel and yard storage facility. A double-wide yard crane can span 12 rows of containers, whereas the typical yard crane can only span 6. A mathematical formulation of the problem is developed which minimizes travel time between the vessel and storage facility. Dynamic programming is employed to determine nearly optimal scheduling strategies. In addition to the mathematical model, a case study is presented using simulation for the container terminal in China, and a 7 % reduction in operating time is observed. The research demonstrates, in two ways, the ability of this technology to increase terminal velocity. Such systems should be considered for US terminals as a way to increase cargo handling capacity without increasing terminal land-area.

• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Dong, Liangcai
  • Goodchild, Anne V
  • Ding, Hanzhi
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 86th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2007-1-21 to 2007-1-25
• Date: 2007

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: CD-ROM
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 13p
• Monograph Title: TRB 86th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers CD-ROM

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Light rail transit; Marine terminals; Operations; Railroad transportation; Routes and routing; Schedules and scheduling; Travel time; Trolley cars; Viaducts; Yard operations
• Geographic Terms: China
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Marine Transportation; Operations and Traffic Management; Passenger Transportation; Railroads; Terminals and Facilities;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01049600
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 07-3394
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: May 21 2007 1:18PM