The best rail fleet mix problem

Abstract

Every rail operator wishes to minimise the size of rail freight car fleet in order to reduce costs. The best rail fleet mix problem for railway is to determine an optimal rail freight car fleet in order to respond to the actual transport demand. A rail company must have capabilities to respond to the actual transport demand if it wants to reach a raised level of competitiveness on the transport market. In other words, it is necessary that the structure of freight rolling stock correspond to the structure of the transport demand. Various types of railcars are used for carrying goods by rail, caused by different performances of goods, for example, by manifestation form, aggregate condition and resistance to atmosphere influences. This paper treats a problem of determining an optimal rail fleet mix. A successful application of a multicriteria decision method, analytic hierarchical process (AHP) for solving of this problem is proposed. According to the selected number and types of criteria, as well as given level of importance, optimal type of rail freight car for all homogenous types of goods is derived. Obtained result shows a potential of practical application of AHP method for the problem of determining the best rail fleet mix.