An Integrated Model for Optimizing Freight Routes in Intermodal Rail-Road Transportation Networks under Link Disruption

Today, in most intermodal freight networks, unexpected incidents such as congestion, traffic jams, accidents, natural disasters such as earthquakes and storms, etc., are inevitable. These events can disrupt a route or at a transshipment terminal. A high-reliability transport network is a system that can manage all kinds of disruptions by preventing, absorbing, or mitigating its effects. Effective management of disturbances in transportation networks requires vulnerability analysis and identification of critical infrastructure. In this study, a multi-objective optimization approach is proposed for integrated vulnerability analysis and disruption response planning in intermodal freight networks. In this model, the rerouting decisions are made based on the capacity of existing paths. In the optimization model, the goal is to find a balance between the cost and reliability criteria of the system. The reliability of the system is defined as the probability that a certain amount of the unit will be shipped from the specified destination over a specified time interval to the destination points. The validity of the proposed approach to managing disturbances in road-rail networks has been measured through computational experiments on real instances of Iranian transportation networks. The results show the efficiency and advantage of the integrated model for reducing operating costs and increasing the reliability of freight transport in the intermodal network after the disruption.

Keywords:

Multi-modal transport , vulnerability assessment , multi-commodity network , Disruption management , rerouting