Service network design with management and coordination of multiple fleets

We present a new optimization model for the tactical design of scheduled service networks for transportation systems where several entities provide service and internal exchanges and coordination with neighboring systems is critical. Internal exchanges represent border crossings necessitating changes of vehicles, while the coordination with neighboring systems represents intermodal operations. It is assumed that strategic planning has indicated an approximate design of the service network, and the model presented in this paper determines departure times of the services such that throughput time of the flow in the system is minimized. The model is an extension of the Design-Balanced Capacitated Multicommodity Network Design model (DBCMND) that we label Service Network Design with Asset Management and multiple Fleet Coordination (SNDAM-mFC) because different vehicle fleets are modeled explicitly. The model is applied to a real-world problem considering planning of new rail freight services across borders. We analyze how synchronization with collaborating services and removal of border crossing operations impact the throughput time for the freight. We identify a significant potential for system performance enhancement from synchronization among collaborating services for the problem studied. Acknowledgements. This work has received financial support from The Norwegian Research Council through the Polcorridor Logchain project. Partial funding has also been made available from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) through its Discovery and Industrial Research Chair grant programs. We want to thank two anonymous referees for valuable comments that have improved the presentation of the paper.