Locomotive Assignment Optimization Of The Railway Transportation In Algeria

Algeria has a very extensive transport system using all modes:road,maritime and the rail transport which plays an important role for the service of ports and major urban centers of the coastal strip.It has evolved in relation to the growing and the deployment of populations,agricultural,mining and industrial activities.There are many difficult problems in the railway transportation field such as the locomotives allocation,the companies have started to realize the important economic of the use of the optimization tools in their planning operation,which lead to the improvement of the optimization tools.The objective of this study is to find out how convenient is the mathematical models are helpful to accrue the locomotive allocation problem in Algeria.The mission here is to make better management of the locomotive fleet optimally to meet the demands of customers.The railway system is facing a particularly ambitious challenge today.The National Railways Transport Company(SNTF),with its experience and exclusivity,meets the majority of the global demand for rail transport.Given the importance of the diversification of its activities by the extension of its network and the instability of its markets,it is obliged to adopt a policy consistent with its objectives of gains and profitability.Transport companies are often forced to make a decision.In general,they agree to choose the best possibility in front of the multitude decisions available to them.These decisions condition the future of the company by assigning it its fundamental objectives and the possible means to achieve them.In this context the company must like any big company maintain its continuity and ensure its development by developing medium-and long-term strategic plans,which are largely integrated optimal management of wagons on the network,particularly for the transport of goods.In view of the high demand of operating locomotives,this paper aims to study the problem of locomotive assignment,which is very important for railway companies.This problem is to determine the maximum tonnage that can be towed by the best allocation of locomotives located in certain depots to a set of pre-scheduled trains to provide sufficient power to pull the trains from origins to their destination.This problem is modeled using the existed locomotive in the Algerian vehicle parks.The application on the mathematical model of the data provided by the National Railways Transport Company(SNTF),which is a mixed variable linear model,is the most convenient for this type of problem,with the association of Cplex,the results show that the model conforms to the requirements of the customers.