Connection Optimization of Container Sea-rail Combined Transport Based on Vehicle-ship Direct Access Mode
To address the optimization problem of container-sea-rail intermodal connections under the direct access mode of vehicles and ships,this study considers the connection between trains and container ships in terms of time and volume,based on the fixed ship schedule.A mixed-integer nonlinear programming model is constructed for the timetable optimization of sea-rail intermodal transportation,aiming at maximizing the number of connected trains,minimizing the number of ships involved in the connection and minimizing the timetable adjustment.The solution is obtained based on a hierarchical optimization method.The model is verified by using Yantian Port in Shenzhen as an example.The results show that the optimization of train schedule considering time and volume connection can increase the number of connected trains by 6,and the number of directly transshipment containers by 75%with 466 TEU.The number of ships involved in the connection increased by 1,and the number of containers taken directly by the three ships increased by 2.6%,4.2%and 2.5%,respectively.The total dwell time of the containers in the port was reduced by 26%.The study shows that the model can provide useful references for improving the connection level of sea-rail combined transport direct access mode.
integrated transportationsea-rail combined transport connectiontimetable optimizationcontainer sea-rail transportdirect access by vehicle and ship