A Tactical Planning Model for Railroad Transportation of Dangerous Goods

Despite comparable volumes of hazardous materials being shipped by both rail and highway in Europe and North America, academic literature has not paid as much attention to rail. An optimization methodology is presented by the authors in this paper for rail tactical planning that includes risk and cost objectives. For each shipment in the network, the authors determine needed train types and numbers, yard activities, and routes to be used. The model's transportation risk assessment component incorporates differentiating railroad operational characteristics. A memetic algorithm-based solution methodology is developed by the authors which attempts to solve the bioobjective model through a combination of genetic and local searches. The midwestern United States' railroad infrastructure forms the basis for generating realistic theoretical problems. The authors' analysis of the solutions to such theory indicates that it is possible to not incur unacceptable operational cost increases while achieving significant population exposure reductions.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/1767714
• Authors:
  • Verma, Manish
  • Verter, Vedat
  • Gendreau, Michel
• Publication Date: 2011-5

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Bibliography; Figures; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 163-174
• Serial:
  • Transportation Science
  • Volume: 45
  • Issue Number: 2
  • Publisher: Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS)
  • ISSN: 0041-1655
  • Serial URL: http://transci.journal.informs.org/

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Costs; Hazardous materials; Mathematical models; Optimization; Railroad facilities; Railroad transportation; Transportation planning
• Uncontrolled Terms: Railroad operations; Transport risks
• Geographic Terms: Europe; Midwestern States; North America
• Subject Areas: Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Railroads; Security and Emergencies; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01342352
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: May 25 2011 7:18PM