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A Tactical Planning Model for Railroad Transportation of Dangerous Goods

Author

Listed:
  • Manish Verma

    (Faculty of Business Administration, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland A1B 3X5, Canada)

  • Vedat Verter

    (Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University, Montréal, Québec H3A 1G5, Canada)

  • Michel Gendreau

    (CIRRELT and Département de Mathématiques et Génie Industriel, École Polytechnique, Montréal, Québec H3C 3A7, Canada)

Abstract

Railroad transportation of hazardous materials did not receive as much attention as highway transportation in the academic literature, although comparable volumes are shipped via these two transport modes in North America and Europe. In this paper, we present an optimization methodology for the railroad tactical planning problem with risk and cost objectives. We determine the routes to be used for each shipment, the yard activities, and the number of trains of different types needed in the network. The transport risk assessment component of our model incorporates the differentiating characteristics of railroad operations. We develop a memetic algorithm-based solution methodology, which combines genetic and local searches, to solve the biobjective model. The railroad infrastructure in the midwestern United States is used as a basis for generating problem instances of the size encountered in real life. Our analyses of the solutions of instances indicate that it is possible to achieve significant reductions in population exposure without incurring unacceptable increases in operational costs.

Suggested Citation

  • Manish Verma & Vedat Verter & Michel Gendreau, 2011. "A Tactical Planning Model for Railroad Transportation of Dangerous Goods," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 45(2), pages 163-174, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ortrsc:v:45:y:2011:i:2:p:163-174
    DOI: 10.1287/trsc.1100.0339
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Mohri, Seyed Sina & Mohammadi, Mehrdad & Gendreau, Michel & Pirayesh, Amir & Ghasemaghaei, Ali & Salehi, Vahid, 2022. "Hazardous material transportation problems: A comprehensive overview of models and solution approaches," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 302(1), pages 1-38.
    2. Romero, Natalia & Nozick, Linda K. & Xu, Ningxiong, 2016. "Hazmat facility location and routing analysis with explicit consideration of equity using the Gini coefficient," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 165-181.
    3. Bhavsar, Nishit & Verma, Manish, 2022. "A subsidy policy to managing hazmat risk in railroad transportation network," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 300(2), pages 633-646.
    4. Yan Sun & Xinya Li & Xia Liang & Cevin Zhang, 2019. "A Bi-Objective Fuzzy Credibilistic Chance-Constrained Programming Approach for the Hazardous Materials Road-Rail Multimodal Routing Problem under Uncertainty and Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-27, May.
    5. Hosseini, S. Davod & Verma, Manish, 2018. "Conditional value-at-risk (CVaR) methodology to optimal train configuration and routing of rail hazmat shipments," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 79-103.
    6. Ditta, A. & Figueroa, O. & Galindo, G. & Yie-Pinedo, R., 2019. "A review on research in transportation of hazardous materials," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    7. Morteza Bagheri & Manish Verma & Vedat Verter, 2014. "Transport Mode Selection for Toxic Gases: Rail or Road?," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 34(1), pages 168-186, January.
    8. Fang, Kan & Ke, Ginger Y. & Verma, Manish, 2017. "A routing and scheduling approach to rail transportation of hazardous materials with demand due dates," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 261(1), pages 154-168.
    9. Fontaine, Pirmin & Crainic, Teodor Gabriel & Gendreau, Michel & Minner, Stefan, 2020. "Population-based risk equilibration for the multimode hazmat transport network design problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 284(1), pages 188-200.
    10. Hassini, Elkafi & Verma, Manish, 2016. "Disruption risk management in railroad networks: An optimization-based methodology and a case studyAuthor-Name: Azad, Nader," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 70-88.
    11. Victor M. Rayas & Marco A. Serrato, 2017. "A framework of the risk assessment for the supply chain of hazardous materials," Netnomics, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 215-226, December.
    12. Ke, Ginger Y. & Verma, Manish, 2021. "A framework to managing disruption risk in rail-truck intermodal transportation networks," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    13. Milad Mohammadi & Alibakhsh Nikzad, 2023. "Sustainable and reliable closed-loop supply chain network design during pandemic outbreaks and disruptions," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 969-991, June.
    14. Vaezi Ali & Verma Manish, 2021. "Exploring an Infrastructure Investment Methodology to Risk Mitigation from Rail Hazardous Materials Shipments," Logistics, Supply Chain, Sustainability and Global Challenges, Sciendo, vol. 12(1), pages 1-16, December.
    15. Wu, Weitiao & Ma, Jian & Liu, Ronghui & Jin, Wenzhou, 2022. "Multi-class hazmat distribution network design with inventory and superimposed risks," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    16. Vaezi, Ali & Verma, Manish, 2018. "Railroad transportation of crude oil in Canada: Developing long-term forecasts, and evaluating the impact of proposed pipeline projects," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 98-111.
    17. Mohammadi, Mehrdad & Jula, Payman & Tavakkoli-Moghaddam, Reza, 2017. "Design of a reliable multi-modal multi-commodity model for hazardous materials transportation under uncertainty," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 257(3), pages 792-809.
    18. Jabbarzadeh, Armin & Azad, Nader & Verma, Manish, 2020. "An optimization approach to planning rail hazmat shipments in the presence of random disruptions," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    19. Verma, Manish & Verter, Vedat & Zufferey, Nicolas, 2012. "A bi-objective model for planning and managing rail-truck intermodal transportation of hazardous materials," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 132-149.

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