A routing and scheduling approach to rail transportation of hazardous materials with demand due dates

This paper investigates the routing and scheduling of rail shipments of hazardous materials (hazmat) in the presence of due dates. In particular, we consider the problem of minimizing the weighted sum of earliness and tardiness for each demand plus the holding cost at each yard, while forcing a risk threshold on each service leg at any time instant. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) accident records, between 1999 and 2013, were analyzed to establish that train speed was the most significant factor in derailment. A mixed-integer programming model and a heuristic-based solution method are proposed for preparing the shipment plan. Finally, the analytical framework is used to study and analyze a number of realistic-sized problem instances generated using the infrastructure of a Class I railroad operator.