Multi-Objective Mathematical Modeling of Train Makeup with a Routing Problem in a Railway Network and Possibility of Lost Sell

Document Type : Scientific - Research

Authors
Reza Alikhani-Kooshkak 1
Reza Tavakkoli-Moghaddam 2
Sadoullah Ebrahimnejad 3
Amin Jamili 4
1 Ph.D. student, School of Industrial Engineering, South Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
2 Professor, School of Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
3 Associate Professor, Department of Industrial Engineering, Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran
4 Associate Professor, School of Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
10.22119/jte.2025.79633
Abstract
A train makeup problem (TMP) is one of the important stages of transportation planning in the rail network, which determines the type and frequency of train movements in order to ship the cargoes efficiently. Based on an optimal plan, the TMP specifies how to allocate shipments to scheduled trains. In this process of planning, there are different constraints that are considered in this paper as follows: diversity and capacity of trains, capacity of railways, customer satisfaction and expectations of custodians and railway network officials in terms of income and expenses. In addition, the constraints of the existing stations in the railway network, including the capacity of shunting yard (i.e., classification yard) and lines for the reception and dispatching the trains are added. The TMP is inherently a multi-objective model that aims at achieving multiple goals, such as distribution of pressure in stations according to the balance plan, boosting the profitability, increasing customer satisfaction, optimal transmitting in a railway network and optimal utilization of fleet capacity. Furthermore, a new TMP model integrated a routing problem with the ability of lost demands is presented. Goal programming and Lp metric methods are used for the multi-objective problem and a number of test problems are generated and solved by GAMS software. The results show the capability of the proposed model and the efficiency of the method used to solve a real life problem in the rail network.
Keywords
Train makeup, Routing problem, Multi-objective optimization, Lp metric, Goal programming
Subjects
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Quarterly Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 17, Issue 1 - Serial Number 66
Autumn 2025
Pages 4979-4994

  • Receive Date 24 October 2017
  • Revise Date 18 July 2018
  • Accept Date 25 July 2018