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Article
Santa Fe Railway Uses an Operating-plan Model to Improve Its Service Design
Interfaces
  • Michael F. Gorman, University of Dayton
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-1-1998
Abstract

Santa Fe Railway's intermodal business unit has developed an innovative approach to designing its service offerings. The operating-plan model (OPM) minimizes the schedule-related costs of service subject to rail-operating capabilities while meeting customers' expectations for service. The algorithm produces a weekly train timetable and assigns traffic to trains. Because of the problem's size and complexity, a combination of genetic and tabu searches is used to search for successively better operating plans. The OPM shows the potential to improve global service by four percent while reducing costs by six percent over the existing operating plan. Santa Fe Intermodal has realized savings by applying the OPM to more narrowly focused problems.

Inclusive pages
1-12
ISBN/ISSN
0092-2102
Comments

Permission documentation is on file.

Publisher
INFORMS
Peer Reviewed
Yes
Citation Information
Michael F. Gorman. "Santa Fe Railway Uses an Operating-plan Model to Improve Its Service Design" Interfaces Vol. 28 Iss. 4 (1998)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/michael_gorman/44/