Abstract
Deutsche Bahn, one of the largest European railway companies, offers mainly two products to commercial and industrial customers for freight transportation. Customers with high demand order unit trains , that are pulled by one or two locomotives from their respective origins to their destinations. In contrast, customers with less demand order a limited amount of single cars , that are first pulled to a classification yard. There they are grouped together with single cars from other customers into a train unit. On the way from their respective origins via intermediate yards to their destinations, the cars are reclassified several times, which is a time-consuming and personnel-intensive procedure. To support the strategic long-term planning process of the single car freight routing, a mathematical optimization tool based on mixed-integer nonlinear programming was developed and is in practice use since 2011. However, real-world constraints have changed over the last years. For example, unit trains and single cars are no longer strictly separated products, but they are more and more integrated: In some unit trains there are still residual capacities that can be used for single cars. For some of these additional new requirements, the existing optimization tool has to be extended slightly by formulating new additional mathematical constraints. For some other requirements, a substantial redevelopment will be necessary in the future. The purpose of this chapter is to review the existing single car routing model, to discuss how it is used in real-life, and to demonstrate how it can be extended to meet the new requirements in the present and future.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ahuja RK, Jha KC, Liu J (2007) Solving real-life railroad blocking problems. Interfaces 37(5):404–419. ISSN: 0092-2102. https://doi.org/10.1287/inte.1070.0295 (cited on page 164)
Assad AA (1981) Analytical models in rail transportation: an annotated bibliography. Inf Syst Oper Res 19(1):59–80. https://doi.org/10.1080/03155986.1981.11731807 (cited on page 163)
Assad AA (1983) Analysis of rail classification policies. Inf Syst Oper Res 21(4):293–314. https://doi.org/10.1080/03155986.1983.11731905 (cited on page 163)
Balakrishnan A, Magnanti TL, Mirchandani P (1997) Network design. In: Dell’Amico M, Maffioli F, Martello S (eds) Annotated bibliographies in combinatorial optimization. Wiley, London, pp 311–334. ISBN: 978-0-471-96574-9(cited on page 164)
Bley A (2007) Routing and capacity optimization for IP networks. PhD thesis, Technische Universität Berlin. https://doi.org/10.14279/depositonce-1588 (cited on page 164)
Bodin LD, Golden BL, Schuster AD, Romig W (1980) A model for the blocking of trains. Transp Res B 14(1):115–120. https://doi.org/10.1016/0191-2615(80)90037-5 (cited on page 163)
Borndörfer R, Klug T, Schlechte T, Fügenschuh A, Schang T, Schülldorf H (2016) The freight train routing problem for congested railway networks with mixed traffic. Transp Sci 50(2):408–423. https://doi.org/10.1287/trsc.2015.0656 (cited on pages 171, 172)
Clausen U, Voll R (2013) A comparison of North American and European railway systems. Eur Transp Res Rev 5(3):129–133. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12544-013-0090-4 (cited on page 164)
Crainic T, Ferland J-A, Rousseau J-M (1984) A tactical planning model for rail freight transportation. Transp Sci 18(2):165–184. https://doi.org/10.1287/trsc.18.2.165 (cited on page 163)
Eisenblätter A, Fledderus ER, Fügenschuh A, Geerdes H-F, Heideck B, Junglas D, Koch T, Kürner T, Martin A (2003) Mathematical methods for automatic optimization of UMTS radio networks. Tech. rep. Zuse Institut Berlin (ZIB), Berlin. momentum.zib.de (cited on page 167)
Fügenschuh A, Homfeld H, Schülldorf H (2015) Single-car routing in rail freight transport. Transp Sci 49(1):130–148. https://doi.org/10.1287/trsc.2013.0486 (cited on pages 162, 164, 166)
Heinrici T (June 2017) Platzkarten für den Güterverkehr (internet article of DVZ, Logistik auf der Schiene). dvz.de (cited on page 168)
Homfeld H (2012) Consolidating car routes in rail freight service by discrete optimization. Verlag Dr. Hut, München. urn:nbn:de:101:1-20120618285(cited on page 162)
IBM ILOG. CPLEX. Apr. 2016. ibm.com (cited on page 164)
Irwing N, Cube HV (1962) Capacity restraint in multi-travel mode assignment programs. Highw Res Board Bull 347:258–287 (cited on page 171)
Keaton MH (1989) Designing optimal railroad operating plans: Lagrangian relaxation and heuristic approaches. Transp Res B 23(6):415–431. https://doi.org/10.1016/0191-2615(89)90042-8 (cited on page 163)
Newton H (Jan. 1997) Network design under budget constraints with application to the railroad blocking problem. PhD thesis, Auburn University, Auburn, AL (cited on page 164)
Novak A (2013) Innovation: full speed ahead for Netzwerkbahn. Railways 2:17–22(cited on page 168)
Voll R (2014) Methoden der mathematischen Optimierung zur Planung taktischer Wagenrouten im Einzelwagenverkehr. Verlag Dr. Hut, München. https://doi.org/10.17877/DE290R-191 (cited on page 174)
Wohl M (1968) Notes on transient queing behavior, capacity restraint functions, and their relationship to travel forecasting. Pap Reg Sci 21(1):191–202. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01952729 (cited on page 171)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Fügenschuh, A., Homfeld, H., Johann, M., Schülldorf, H., Stieber, A. (2018). Use of Optimization Tools for Routing in Rail Freight Transport. In: Borndörfer, R., Klug, T., Lamorgese, L., Mannino, C., Reuther, M., Schlechte, T. (eds) Handbook of Optimization in the Railway Industry. International Series in Operations Research & Management Science, vol 268. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72153-8_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72153-8_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-72152-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-72153-8
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)