A Railway Organization Research For International Container Transportation Based On Rail-sea Competitive Status

With the initiate of "the Belt and Road",railway container transportation in China has experienced a rapid development.As the China Railway Express operates successively,trades among China,Europe,and many Central-Asian countries has become increasingly close,and economic activities have become more frequent.As an advanced modern transportation mode,container transportation has the advantages of energy-saving,safe,convenient,and environmental-friendly.In such an international trade situation,container transportation plays an increasingly important role in the freight transportation in international trade.As the main modes of the international containers transportation,rail and sea have both similarities and differences,as well as their respective strengths and weaknesses.With the advantages of the low cost and the large capacity,shipping mode takes the dominant position in international container transportation,especially in the segment between China and Europe.In comparison,railway container transportation has an obvious attraction to higher value-added cargos due to its much shorter transportation time.Therefore,it is of great significance to study the competition of these two modes in international container transportation.Besides,the necessity for international railway containers transportation to shorten its transport time requires a further optimization and upgrading of its organization method.As an important platform for the development of international railway container transportation,the railway container terminal,distinct with the traditional railway container terminal in terms of its functional layout,transportation organization,operation scheduling,operation management,etc.,has a great effect on the railway transportation of international containers.Concerning the international container transportation organization on basis of the rail-sea transportation competition,this paper makes researches on the said competition and the transportation organization method of international container in railway transportation.Then,this paper addresses the problem of the current rail-sea competition in international container transportation,the operation method of railway container transfer trains,as well as the storage plan and operation organization in the railway container terminal.The main research contents of this paper are as follows:(1)The basic issues regarding the competition between rail and sea of international containers transportation are defined.This paper studies the basic issues of the transportation organization under the rail-sea competitive situation through advantage/disadvantage analysis to the basic situation and competitive status of rail and sea in international container transportation,as well as the railway transportation,especially the China Railway Express under this competitive situation.Therefore,this thesis puts forward the basic problems in the process of international railway container transport organization under the competitive situation,i.e.,the organization optimization of the transfer flow of railway containers during the international transportation process and the operational optimization of the container handling,which provides a theoretical foundation for the further study in this paper.(2)The competitive model of rail and sea transport of international containers are built.Through the Entry-deterrence model of the game theory,this paper analyzes the competition of two modes of transportation in international containers.Then,the example of China Railway Express from Hefei in China to Hamburg in Germany are introduced to analyze the competition between China Railway Express and the liners.Thereby,this paper proposes the optimization direction of international railway container transportation for an enhanced competitiveness.(3)The organizational optimization of the transfer operation mode in international container railway transportation is studied.Based on the analysis of the main mode of railway container trains’operating,this paper studies the transformation of the mathematical optimization model and solution searching method of the problem of container flow connection in the railways’transferring mode,then proposes the 0-1 mixed integer programming model with the comprehensive optimization of the container flow’s transferring and the line planning of the transition of the container trains,and solves the model.Finally,the real data of the Chongqing and Shanghai Railway Container terminal is adopted to verify the proposed model.(4)The operational optimization of the railway container terminals in the international railway container transportation process is studied.This paper takes the storage space and the handling equipment in container terminals as research objects,proposes a two-layer programming model of the integrated optimization of storage and loading and unloading handling in container terminals by analyzing the information feedback and interaction between the scheduling optimization of the railway gantry crane and the optimization of the storage location assignment of containers.A two-layer genetic algorithm is designed to solve the model,in which the optimized handling sequence in the mixed storage mode is concerned to minimize the reshuffling times of containers in the storage space,while the minimized operational completion time of railway gantry crane is taken as the optimization objective with the consideration of the flexible range of multiple working lines for the optimization of the loading and unloading handling.The information interaction and feedback of the above model are carried out,and an example is conducted to verify the models.By researching on the optimization of international container railway transportation organization on basis of the competition between rail and sea transportation,this paper provides a theoretical support not only for the competition and cooperation of the two modes under the new situation,but also for the transportation organization of railway containers and the transportation organization of intermodal transportation containers.It addresses the optimization of railway transit container flow and the integration optimization of the storage space and loading and unloading handling scheduling in container terminals,so as to maintain and shorten the transportation time of international containers,to reduce the operational cost of railway system,and to enhance the competitiveness of international container railway transportation.Finally,it is aiming to achieve a better operation of the railway container transportation and the railway system in an orderly,efficient and smooth manner,then reaches the beneficial maximum of the transportation system,which has a significantly practical meaning for railway container transportation and container intermodal transportation.