Comprehensive Optimization Model of Diagrams of High-Speed Railway Express Freight Trains Operated in Passenger Train Patterns

With the rapid development of high-speed railways, high-speed railway express freight trains - which operate as passenger trains to transport some fast goods, such as intercity parcels - brings a probable rewarding opportunity. In this paper, the high-speed railway express freight train's operation diagram comprehensive optimization model is built based on the value of time consumption and economic benefits for transportation enterprises. The genetic algorithm was employed to get a solution to the model, then a model dedicated algorithm was designed and its effectiveness was verified by experimental practice. The China Railway Express Company will set up high-speed railway express business in 20 cities from April 1, 2014. Using high-speed railway to transport express freight is one of the best ways for those in the transportation industry. High-speed railway transport express freight is not affected by factors such as traffic jams or air traffic control, and the degree of punctuality is very high in addition to extreme weather conditions. Using the high-speed railway to transport express freight has very strong competitiveness from the aspects of timeliness and cost. Many domestic scholars have discussed the feasibility of using high-speed railway to transport express freight. They all agree that using high-speed railway to transport express freight is completely feasible according to its advantages, future development, and tariff. Nanchang Railway Bureau and Guangzhou Railway (Group) Corporation experimented with the use of high-speed railway to transport express freight and achieved some accomplishments. However, if high-speed railway express freight trains are organized and operated as passenger trains, there is an issue of how to optimize the train operation diagram. This paper attempts to build the comprehensive optimization model of a high-speed railway express freight train operation diagram to solve the problem according to the indexes of time limitation and cost effectiveness of a transportation enterprise.