Research On The Optimization Of Railway Empty Containers Reposition

With the development of Chinese economy and railway construction,rail container transport has become the fastest growing transport mode.Due to the limit of containers quantity and unbalance of cargo flow,empty containers should be transported among container stations.Empty container reposition plays an important role in the efficiency of rail container utilization,the degree of meeting freight demand,and the modernization of railway operation and it needs to be studied further in theory and practice.In China,rail container reposition decision was made based on railway plans and personal experience,lack of scientific method,which can not meet customers' requirement.This paper analyses the factors which affects empty container reposition, including management mode,network capacity,flow path,planned task,and freight demand.A two-step optimization model was put forward.The first step is the evaluation of empty container need using Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process(FAHP),and a set of index were set up to evaluate the empty container need;the second step is the optimization of the empty containers reposition.A multi-objective liner integer optimizing model was set up,aiming at the optimization of reposition cost and time,and LINGO was used to get the reposition result.At the same time a lot of methods were proposed to decrease the reposition quantity.At last the model was illustrated by an example.Both of the method and model are theoretical and practical,and can be used in railway operation,improving the level of railway freight service and rail container transport organization.