Assessment criteria for decisions in the field of rail freight transportation

Abstract

Timely relocation of empty cars to loading stations plays an important role in rail freight transport logistics. The purpose of the study is to determine the criteria for identifying a need for reserved station tracks while minimizing operating costs. The authors used special methods to study freight transport operations and mathematically modeled the transportation process subject to the developed technological measures, such as concentrating the car traffic at stations and yards with sufficient technical capabilities, minimizing the number of handling operations in transit, and differentiating cars according to their respective operators. As a result, the authors identified the criteria underlying the decision-making algorithm for managing rail transport operations, while minimizing costs throughout the service area.