Quantifying the Relative Influence of Railway Hump Classification Yard Performance Factors
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 147, Issue 8
Abstract
Single-railcar freight shipments that move in multiple freight trains and are sorted at several classification yards between origin and destination remain an important source of traffic and revenue for North American railways. Despite the role of both mainlines and yards in freight rail transportation performance, little attention is devoted to investigations of classification yard performance, and few yard capacity models and tools are available. To address this need, this paper seeks to quantify the relative influence of different factors on several yard performance metrics. Simulation experiments conducted with YardSYM, a discrete-event simulation model developed specifically to analyze hump classification yards, examine varying the volume, number of blocks, block size distribution, number of outbound trains, train departure distribution, train arrival time variability, and arriving block volume variability. In addition to the expected sensitivity of yard performance to railcar throughput volume, the most influential factors change depending on the particular yard performance metric, emphasizing the criticality of matching performance metrics to railroad business objectives. The results of this research serve to screen variables for the future development of multivariable yard performance models and facilitate more informed business decisions regarding yard operating plans that make more efficient and economical use of existing yard capacity.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Data Availability Statement
Some or all of the data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the National University Rail Center (NURail), a US DOT OST Tier 1 University Transportation Center, and the Association of American Railroads. The author thanks Nick Chodorow of the Belt Railway of Chicago for access to the YardSYM simulation software. The author also thanks Krishna Jha and Chaminda Fernando of Optym for ongoing YardSYM technical support.
References
AAR (Association of American Railroads). 2019. Railroad facts. Washington, DC: AAR.
Ahuja, R. K., C. B. Cunha, and G. Sahin. 2005. “Network models in railroad planning and scheduling.” In INFORMS tutorials in operations research. Catonsville, MD: Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences.
AREMA (American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association). 2019. Manual for railway engineering. Lantham, MD: AREMA.
Barbour, W., J. C. Martinez Mori, S. Kuppa, and D. B. Work. 2018. “Prediction of arrival times of freight traffic on US railroads using support vector regression.” Transp. Res. Part C: Emerging Technol. 93 (Aug): 211–227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trc.2018.05.019.
Baugher, R. W. 2015. “Simulation of yard and terminal operations.” In Handbook of operations research applications at railroads. New York: Springer.
BRC (Belt Railway Company of Chicago). 2018. “Belt railway company of Chicago overview.” Accessed January 16, 2018. http://www2.beltrailway.com/about-2/.
Cardoso-Contreras, S., and P. J. Wong. 1983. “Engineering design and operational study of Coyotepec Yard.” Transp. Res. Rec. 927 (1): 56–62.
Dick, C. T., and J. R. Dirnberger. 2014. “Advancing the science of yard design and operations with the CSX Hump Yard simulation system.” In Proc., 2014 ASME/IEEE Joint Rail Conf. New York: ASME.
Dick, C. T., and D. Mussanov. 2016. “Operational schedule flexibility and infrastructure investment: Capacity trade-off on single-track railways.” Transp. Res. Rec. 2546 (1): 1–8. https://doi.org/10.3141/2546-01.
Dick, C. T., D. Mussanov, and N. Nishio. 2019. “Transitioning from flexible to structured heavy haul operations to expand the capacity of single-track shared corridors in North America.” Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. 233 (6): 629–639. https://doi.org/10.1177/0954409718804427.
Dirnberger, J. R., and C. P. L. Barkan. 2007. “Lean railroading: Improving railroad classification terminal performance through bottleneck management methods.” Transp. Res. Rec. 1995 (1): 52–61. https://doi.org/10.3141/1995-07.
Dong, Y. 1997. “Modeling rail freight operations under different operating strategies.” Ph.D. thesis, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
El-Din, M. K. G. 1968. “Evaluation of the factors affecting capacity and operating efficiency of gravity-type railroad classification yards.” Ph.D. dissertation, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Elliott, C. V., M. Sakasita, W. A. Stock, P. J. Wong, and J. A. Wetzel. 1980. Railroad classification yard design methodology study, Elkhart Yard Rehabilitation: A case study. Washington, DC: USDOT.
Engelberg, G. P. 1983. “Canadian national railways’ terminal interactive model (TRIM).” Transp. Res. Rec. 927 (1): 56–62.
Gray, J. 2013. “Measuring performance of the national rail network.” In Proc., William W. Hay Railroad Engineering Seminar Presentation. Urbana, IL: Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Grimes, G. A. 2019. “Remote control trains, moving blocks, and the future economics of railroading.” In Proc., Transportation Research Board 98th Annual Meeting. Washington, DC: Transportation Research Board.
Horner, P. 2003. “On the right track.” In OR/MS/Today. Catonsville, MD: Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences.
Joborn, M., T. G. Crainic, M. Gendreau, K. Holmberg, and J. T. Lundgren. 2004. “Economies of scale in empty freight car distribution in scheduled railways.” Transp. Sci. 38 (2): 121–134. https://doi.org/10.1287/trsc.1030.0061.
Khoshniyat, F. 2012. “Simulation of planning strategies for track allocation at marshalling yards.” Master’s thesis, Div. of Traffic and Logistics, Railway Group, KTH Swedish Royal Institute of Technology.
Kraft, E. R. 2017. Adding flexibility to the scheduled railroad. New York: Simmons-Boardman.
Lin, E., and C. Cheng. 2009. “YardSim: A rail yard simulation framework and its implementation in a major railroad in the U.S.” In Proc., 2009 Winter Simulation Conf., 2532–2541. New York: IEEE.
Lin, E., and C. Cheng. 2011. “Simulation and analysis of railroad hump yards in North America.” In Proc., 2011 Winter Simulation Conf., 3710–3718. New York: IEEE.
Marinov, M., and J. Viegas. 2011. “Analysis of double-ended flat-shunted yard performance employing two yard crews.” J. Transp. Eng. 137 (5): 319–326. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)TE.1943-5436.0000218.
Martland, C. D. 1982. “PMAKE analysis: Predicting rail yard time distributions using probabilistic train connection standards.” Transp. Sci. 16 (4): 476–506. https://doi.org/10.1287/trsc.16.4.476.
Martland, C. D. 2008a. “Improving on-time performance for long-distance passenger trains operating on freight routes.” J. Transp. Res. Forum 47 (4): 63–80. https://doi.org/10.5399/osu/jtrf.47.4.1126.
Martland, C. D. 2008b. Railroad train delay and network reliability. Pueblo, CO: Transportation Technology Center.
Minbashi, N., M. Bohlin, and B. Kordnejad. 2020. “A departure delay estimation model for freight trains.” In Proc., 8th Transport Research Arena. Brussels, Belgium: European Commission.
Optym. 2020. “Creating an integrated hump yard simulation system.” Accessed September 1, 2020. https://optym.com/case-studies/integrated-hump-yard-system/.
Pachl, J. 2002. Railway operation and control. Mountlake Terrace, WA: VTD Rail Publishing.
Petersen, E. R. 1977a. “Railyard modeling: Part I. Prediction of put-through time.” Transp. Sci. 11 (1): 37–49. https://doi.org/10.1287/trsc.11.1.37.
Petersen, E. R. 1977b. “Railyard modeling: Part II. The effect of yard facilities on congestion.” Transp. Sci. 11 (1): 50–59. https://doi.org/10.1287/trsc.11.1.50.
Reinschmidt, A. J. 1981. “Simulation of railroad hump yard activities with emphasis on the configuration of the classification yard.” Ph.D. thesis, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Sehitoglu, T., D. Mussanov, and C. T. Dick. 2018. “Operational schedule flexibility, train velocity and the performance reliability of single-track railways.” In Proc., Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting. Washington, DC: Transportation Research Board.
Seyedvakili, S. A., S. M. Nasr Azadani, J. A. Zakeri, Y. Shafahi, and M. Karimi. 2018. “New model for the railway network design problem.” J. Transp. Eng. Part A: Syst. 144 (11): 04018070. https://doi.org/10.1061/JTEPBS.0000180.
Seyedvakili, S. A., J. A. Zakeri, S. M. Nasr Azadani, and Y. Shafahi. 2020. “Long-term railway network planning using a multiperiod network design model.” J. Transp. Eng. Part A: Syst. 146 (1): 04019054. https://doi.org/10.1061/JTEPBS.0000276.
Shields, C. B. 1966. “Models for railroad terminals.” IEEE Trans. Syst. Sci. Cybern. 2 (2): 123–127. https://doi.org/10.1109/TSSC.1966.6593094.
Shih, M. C. 2017. “Capacity evaluation and infrastructure planning techniques for heterogeneous railway traffic under structured, mixed and flexible operation.” Doctoral thesis, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Turnquist, M. A., and M. S. Daskin. 1982. “Queuing models of classification and connection delay in railyards.” Transp. Sci. 16 (2): 207–230. https://doi.org/10.1287/trsc.16.2.207.
Van Dyke, C., and M. Meketon. 2015. “Railway blocking process.” In Handbook of operations research applications at railroads. New York: Springer.
Wong, P. J., M. Sakasita, W. A. Stock, C. V. Elliott, and M. A. Hackworth. 1981. Railroad classification yard technology manual—Volume I: Yard design methods. Washington, DC: USDOT.
Zhang, L., M. Jin, Z. Ye, H. Li, D. B. Clarke, and Y. Wang. 2017. “Macrolevel classification yard capacity modeling.” Transp. Res. Rec. 2608 (1): 125–133. https://doi.org/10.3141/2608-14.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 147 • Issue 8 • August 2021
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 16, 2020
Accepted: Jan 14, 2021
Published online: May 19, 2021
Published in print: Aug 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Oct 19, 2021
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.