A model to design a national high-speed rail network for freight distribution

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

2010

Subject Area

operations - traffic, ridership - commuting, policy - congestion, mode - rail

Keywords

Traffic congestion, Networks, Mathematical models, High speed trains, High speed rail, Gridlock (Traffic), Goods movement, Freight traffic, Design

Abstract

High-speed rail is often touted as a means to reduce congestion on the United States' highways by removing passenger car traffic. But highway congestion can also be reduced by reducing the amount of freight traffic. So, given the advance in high-speed rail, the potential exists for developing a national high-speed network for freight distribution. To design such a network considering highway traffic and transit times, the authors present an uncapacitated network design model with a post-processing step for the capacity constraint. To illustrate how this modeling approach could be used by policy makers to evaluate the impact of a high-speed rail network, the authors apply models with preliminary data on high-speed rail operating parameters for freight applications and from current data on shipments from a major truckload carrier and the US Census Bureau.

Comments

Transportation Research Part A Home Page: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09658564

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