Integrating Management of Truck and Rail Systems in Los Angeles

This project establishes models to optimize the balance of freight demand across rail and truck modes. In real life situations, trains often travel at different speeds (i.e. passenger trains and freight trains share the same rail network). This incurs train delay whereby reducing the efficiency of the rail network. To provide a solution for this problem, the researchers develop heuristic algorithms to improve conventional dispatching rules to reduce the average train delay. Then they build a control model and provide the solution procedure to adapt a dynamic headway concept inspired by new signaling technology like Positive Train Control (PTC). Rail network data of the Southern California region is collected to perform a detailed simulation analysis. The simulation results show significant improvement of network efficiency brought by our model and algorithms: as high as 21% reduction in average train delay with our best dispatching policy while with the dynamic headway control model, the average train delay is reduced by 40%. The railway network is therefore shown to have the potential to increase throughput capacity by 20%.

• Record URL:
  http://ncst.ucdavis.edu/project/usc-volvo-01

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $79604.00
• Contract Numbers:

  DTRT13-G-UTC29

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Volvo Research and Educational Foundation

  AA12700, M2.7, SE-405 08
  Sweden,    

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  National Center for Sustainable Transportation

  University of California, Davis
  Davis, CA  United States 
• Managing Organizations:

  National Center for Sustainable Transportation

  University of California, Davis
  Davis, CA  United States 

  METRANS Transportation Center

  University of Southern California
  Los Angeles, CA  United States  90089-0626
• Performing Organizations:

  National Center for Sustainable Transportation

  University of California, Davis
  Davis, CA  United States 

  METRANS Transportation Center

  University of Southern California
  Los Angeles, CA  United States  90089-0626
• Principal Investigators:

  Dessouky, Maged

• Start Date: 20130301
• Expected Completion Date: 20181231
• Actual Completion Date: 20181031
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers
• Source Data: RiP Project 37442

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Data collection; Freight traffic; Freight trains; Integrated corridor management; Simulation; Trucks
• Uncontrolled Terms: Freight flow
• Geographic Terms: Los Angeles (California); Southern California
• Subject Areas: Freight Transportation; Planning and Forecasting; Railroads; Research;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01553713
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: National Center for Sustainable Transportation
• Contract Numbers: DTRT13-G-UTC29
• Files: UTC, RiP
• Created Date: Feb 20 2015 1:00AM