01478598

Component

This paper addresses the problem of allocating residual track capacity among multiple competing carriers where infrastructure ownership and train operations are vertically separated to facilitate the delivery by train of one-off loads. A bid set construction approach is proposed for use within a combinatorial auction-based framework to support this allocation of track capacity among competing carriers. The proposed bid set construction technique employs an OR-of-XOR bidding language and optimization methods that will ultimately produce newly scheduled trains with minimum total delay and operating costs. The technique enables the expression of complementary or substitutable relationships among the train slots constructed along predetermined train routes and permits quick configuration of routes from residual track capacity along which new trains can be operated. The proposed technique is compared against an intuitive, combinative bid set construction method and is tested within the combinatorial auction-based track capacity allocation framework. A winner determination problem (WDP) that simultaneously accommodates bidding languages of both bid set construction techniques is used to generate an optimal allocation of track capacity among bidders based on the different bidding strategies. Results of computational experiments designed to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed bid construction technique and effectiveness of the framework are presented.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AR040(1) Rail Capacity.

01470560

13-2249

English

23p

2013

Transportation Research Board 92nd Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; References; Tables

Combinatorial analysis; Intermodal transportation; Railroad tracks; Resource allocation

Auctions; Spot markets; Track capacity

Planning and Forecasting; Railroads; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2013 Paper #13-2249

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Feb 5 2013 12:30PM