A model of intermodal rail-truck service for operations management, investment planning, and costing

This dissertation focuses on the development of an efficient model for the improvement of intermodal rail-truck systems. The system to be improved includes both the rail network and the drayage operations in the service regions under investigation. The model of intermodal rail-truck service is composed of a set of different scenarios which encompass the various issues arising in operations planning, investment analysis, and level of service-price positioning for competitive considerations with respect to other transportation modes. In the arena of operations planning, the model solves the scheduling and routing problem for a series of intermodal shipments through a rail-truck intermodal network in the short, medium, and long run time frames. In the arena of investment analysis, it considers the addition of new technologies, such as satellite-based vehicle monitoring and communications equipment, the addition or deletion of terminals, the addition of new rolling stock technologies such as Roadrailers, and the purchase of additional units of current rolling stock, such as trailers or containers.; The problem formulation is by nature a very large integer program, which is solved using a heuristic designed to exploit the problem's special characteristics. Compared with traditional optimization methods, the solution procedure has significantly better performance characteristics, and is practical for extremely large systems.; This dissertation also focuses on the business environment of intermodal rail-truck service by suggesting an alternative strategy for its administration. The new strategy suggested includes more centralization in the rail and drayage operation as well as in the marketing function. In addition, new expert and information systems are recommended. These changes, we believe, will improve the level of customer service, system flexibility, and asset utilization.; This research required the blending of knowledge from two distinct but related fields. The first of these fields is operations research/systems analysis, which deals with the modelling, design, and optimization of large scale systems. The second is the field of transportation systems analysis, which is concerned with the development of efficient transportation and logistic systems.