A budget-constrained partial protection planning of a rail intermodal terminal network

Rail-truck intermodal transportation is an essential component of freight transportation in North America, and thus, its associated infrastructure is deemed crucial for the wellbeing of the society. In this paper, a budget-constrained partial protection planning model is proposed that addresses the fortification of a rail intermodal network such that the effects of an intentional disruption are minimized. Novel solution methodologies that make use of metaheuristic approaches and a decomposition approach are proposed to solve the challenging tri-level mixed-integer mathematical model. The proposed analytical approaches are then used to solve and analyze problem instances generated using the realistic infrastructure of a major railroad operator. Finally, the computational efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed approaches over the existing solution techniques in the literature are discussed and future research directions are outlined.Article HighlightsThe paper suggests partial protection of facilities together with two metaheuristic approaches to solve the model.The proposed metaheuristic approaches are efficient in solving the model compared to the existing exact approach.Having the option to partially protect facilities provides effective use of scarce defensive resources.