Canadian National Railway Research Articles

Fast Continuous and Integer L-Shaped Heuristics Through Supervised Learning

We propose a methodology at the nexus of operations research and machine learning (ML) leveraging generic approximators available from ML to accelerate the solution of mixed-integer linear two-stage stochastic programs. We aim at solving problems where the second stage is demanding. Our core idea is to gain large reductions in online solution time, while incurring small reductions in first-stage solution accuracy by substituting the exact second-stage solutions with fast, yet accurate, supervised ML predictions. This upfront investment in ML would be justified when similar problems are solved repeatedly over time—for example, in transport planning related to fleet management, routing, and container yard management. Our numerical results focus on the problem class seminally addressed with the integer and continuous L-shaped cuts. Our extensive empirical analysis is grounded in standardized families of problems derived from stochastic server location (SSLP) and stochastic multi-knapsack (SMKP) problems available in the literature. The proposed method can solve the hardest instances of SSLP in less than 9% of the time it takes the state-of-the-art exact method, and in the case of SMKP, the same figure is 20%. Average optimality gaps are, in most cases, less than 0.1%. History: Accepted by Alice Smith, Area Editor (for this paper) for Design and Analysis of Algorithms–Discrete. Funding: Financial support from the Institut de Valorisation des Données (IVADO) Fundamental Research Project Grants [project entitled “Machine Learning for (Discrete) Optimization”]; Canada Research Chairs; the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada [Collaborative Research and Development Grant CRD-477938-14]; and the Canadian National Railway Company Chair in Optimization of Railway Operations at Université de Montréal is gratefully acknowledged. E. Frejinger holds a Canada Research Chair. Computations were made on the supercomputer Béluga, managed by Calcul Québec and Digital Research Alliance of Canada. The operation of this supercomputer is funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation; the Ministère de l’Économie, de la Science et de l’Innovation du Québec; and the Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Nature et Technologies.

Research on the Investment Value of Three Companies on Industrial Sectors in the U.S. Capital Market

Stocks and bonds issued by industrial companies listed and traded on the stock exchange belong to industrial stocks. For example: electric power, steel, automobile, food, beverage, wine, textile, pharmaceutical, and other enterprises engaged in product manufacturing stocks, bonds and other securities. In the United States, industrial stocks make up a large proportion of the economy. In the process, investors can make a lot of profits. Despite more than a century of growth in such industries, there is still a lot of potential. Industrial stocks are among the areas with the longest shelf life in the United States and the world. This paper analyses the selected three companies in industrial sector the three aspects of risk, profitability and market ratio to predict basic trend in this area. Three companies are Canadian National Railway Company (CNI), Caterpillar Inc. (CAT), FedEx Corporation (FDX). The results show Canadian National Railway Company is less risky and FedEx Corporation is least profitable. The findings in this paper may benefit the different investors in financial markets on investment decisions.

Legal and Social Aspects of the Belarusian Economic Emigration to Canada in the 1920s-30s

The author examines the main features for the formation of the Belarusian economic emigration to Canada. The intensity of the emigration from 1921 to 1939 was analyzed, when the territory of Western Belarus was a part of Poland. The historical base of the research was the unpublished documents of the Belarusian, Ukrainian and Polish archives. The article presents the structure of state emigration bodies that were involved in organizing and controlling the recruitment of emigrants, their employment and the process of re-emigration. It describes the features of the Canadian legislation for the scale of the Belarusian emigration and the legal adaptation of emigrants. Particular attention is paid to the role of the Canadian railway companies “Canadian National Railways” and “Canadian Pacific Railways” in the selection of emigrants and their employment in agriculture and industry. The author argue that the Polish authorities stimulated the emigration of the Belarusian population for the polonization of Western Belarus. The problematic socio-psychological adaptation of the Belarusian emigrants, because Belarusians in Canada weakly expressed the national identity, is described. The author concludes that the international cooperation had an important role in forming the diaspora’s and national identity, especially the international contacts with the representatives of other peoples and the participation in common political organizations and projects.

The load planning and sequencing problem for double-stack trains

This paper addresses the integrated load planning and sequencing problem (LPSP) for double-stack trains. This decision-making problem occurs in intermodal terminals and consists in assigning containers from a storage area to slots on railcars of outbound trains and in determining the loading sequence of the handling equipment. Even though this a relevant operational problem, it has seen no attention in the operations research literature so far. Prior models either focus on single-stack railcars or treat the load planning and sequencing separately. By extending prior work on load planning, we propose two different integer linear programming formulations. We show by an extensive numerical study that we are able to solve instances with up to 50 containers with a commercial general-purpose solver in less than 20 min. A case study based on real data provided by the Canadian National Railway Company highlights that the LPSP can reduce the number of container handlings in intermodal terminals compared to sequential solutions by on average 11.3% and 16.5% for gantry cranes and reach stackers, respectively.

A time–space formulation for the locomotive routing problem at the Canadian National Railways

This paper addresses the locomotive routing problem, a large-scale railway optimization problem that aims to determine the optimal sequence of trains to be followed by each locomotive in a given fleet, while considering locomotive maintenance over a weekly planning horizon. By using commodity aggregation and flow decomposition techniques, we design a tractable integer linear program for the problem. The formulation is based on a time–space network representation of the problem that allows us to track the maintenance status of specific locomotives over the planning horizon and to manage locomotive assignments to trains based on their current maintenance status. It also considers locomotive repositioning, train connections, and utilization of third-party locomotives (i.e., foreign power). Computational experiments on real instances from the Canadian National Railways show that our model is tractable despite its size and can be solved optimally within reasonable computing times. Our methodology performs favorably when compared to historical data supplied by the industrial partner. The solutions satisfy train schedules and locomotive maintenance while requiring fewer locomotives and less repositioning.

3-D frame behaviour and load rating of truss bridges in railway infrastructure

Railway truss bridge load rating is studied herein using full scale diagnostic load test and 3-D finite element analysis. which has not been typically practiced. Forty-eight bridges of Canadian National Railway are included, with eight load tested. One of the focuses is the effect of a collision strut member (CS) to the behaviour of main truss members, especially the end post L0U1. For simplicity, CS was ignored in design and past load rating using 2-D truss analysis. Its effect is identified herein for increased live load stress by inducing bending, leading to unconservative rating. In addition, these spans are found to behave more closely to frames. Out-of-plane bending of main truss members is also studied as part of 3-D behaviour. A multiplicative adjusting factor (AF) is accordingly developed and recommended as the realistic solution to enhance load rating by addressing bending previously ignored in truss models, for a large number of bridges in the infrastructure network. The findings of this study have been implemented in practice and can be useful for design and evaluation of truss bridges in North America and other continents for stress calculation in both strength and fatigue limit states, while localised stress analysis with fine mesh for connections was out of this study’s scope.

“With All The Ghosts that Haunt the Park...”: Haunted Recreation in Brent (Ontario)

Abstract When I first visited Brent, the defunct logging village, now campgrounds in the northern reaches of Algonquin Provincial Park I went searching for ghost stories. Often described as a “ghost town,” Brent has been occupied since the earliest days of logging in the Ottawa River/Kiji Sibi Valley and holds an important place in the oral history of the Park. The village was a place where many died after violent accidents during the timber rush of the eighteen-hundreds, where Algonquin Anishinaabe Peoples had camped and likely held a village of their own prior to colonization. Brent was once a bustling community, the former site of the Kish-Kaduk Lodge and an important railway stopover during the First World War. Further, Brent was home to the last year round resident of the Park. Mr. Adam Pitts, known to many local cottagers as the “Mayor” passed away in his home in 1998 one year after the railroad tracks were removed by the Canadian National Railway Company and the electricity was shut off. Now his cottage is a ruin some claim to be haunted by the Mayor’s restless ghost. And there are other ghost stories I heard in Brent that haunt the edges of the colonial imagination, stalking unwary travellers as they meander through what they sometimes assume to be “pristine wilderness.” Common patterns of self-apprehension and identity formation associated with tourism and heritage management in Algonquin Park are imbued with nationalist value through a prismatic complex of cultural appropriation, the denial of complicity in colonial violence, and the contingent obfuscation of Indigenous presence and persistence in the area, a process I call haunted recreation. Countering this complex is critical for working past the historical and intergenerational trauma associated with Canadian settler-colonialism and the contemporary inequities of Canadian society.

ROAD AND RAIL FATALITIES OF ELK, BIGHORN SHEEP, AND GRAY WOLVES IN JASPER NATIONAL PARK, ALBERTA, 1980–2018

Established in 1907, Jasper National Park (JNP) comprises 10,880 km2 of mountainous terrain in western Alberta, Canada. Its large mammals have been protected from hunting and trapping, but are subject to accidental collisions with vehicles and trains on the Yellowhead Highway and the Canadian National Railway (CNR) that transect JNP. This paper reviews the park's historical inventory of Elk (Cervus elaphus), Bighorn Sheep (Ovis Canadensis), and Gray Wolves (Canis lupus), and reports on their number killed by vehicles and trains from 1980 to 2018. Elk population estimates declined from 1000 in 1975 to 318 in 2018. An aerial survey of Bighorn Sheep flown in 2018 over all of JNPs sheep range recorded a decline of 58–62% compared to 1987. In the lower main valley, discrete bands of rams and ewes declined on 2 traditional winter ranges. The road and rail fatalities of Elk and sheep were superimposed on predation. In the late 1970s, wolves were estimated at 160, but reached an undetermined low in 2018 following year-round trapping on JNPs boundaries and accidental fatalities on the park's roads and railways.

The Locomotive Assignment Problem with Distributed Power at the Canadian National Railway Company

Some of the most important optimization problems faced by railway operators arise from the management of their locomotive fleet. In this paper, we study a general version of the locomotive assignment problem encountered at the tactical level by one of the largest railroads in North America: the Canadian National (CN) Railway Company. We present a modeling framework with two integer linear programming formulations and contribute to the state of the art by allowing decisions on each train’s operating mode (distributed power or not) over the whole (weekly) planning horizon without partitioning it winto smaller time windows. Given the difficulty in solving the problem, one of the formulations is enhanced through various refinements, such as constraint relaxations, preprocessing, and fixed cost approximations. We thus achieve a significant reduction in the required computational time to solve instances of realistic size. We also present two versions of a Benders decomposition–based algorithm to obtain feasible solutions. On average, it allows a reduction of the associated computational time by two hours. Results from an extensive computational study and a case study with data provided by CN confirm the potential benefits of the model and solution approach.

Potential effects and impacts of a coal spill on sensitive aquatic habitat: a weight-of-evidence sediment quality assessment

Abstract On 11 January 2014, a Canadian Pacific Railway train derailed on the Canadian National Railway Company's Yale Subdivision, Mile 122.7, in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. This derailment resulted in the partial release of metallurgical coal from three rail cars into, and adjacent to, Silver Creek. Following the derailment and subsequent spill, a comprehensive coal recovery program was implemented. As part of the program, coal deposits were removed from the Silver Creek mainstem in the right-of-way during the stabilization work. A total of approximately 143 tonnes of mixed coal, organic and mineral fines were removed during this program. Subsequently, using a weight-of-evidence sediment quality triad approach, a two-year Aquatic Impact Assessment was conducted to evaluate whether the remaining residual coal in Silver Creek and Burnaby Lake presented the potential for impact to the aquatic environment. Lines-of-evidence (LOEs) were evaluated, including sediment chemistry, sediment toxicity, bioaccumulation potential and coal content. The majority of the data from exposed sampling locations indicated that there was low potential for impact, based on the assessed LOEs. Hence, given the overall low potential for residual impacts from the coal deposits in the Silver Creek–Burnaby Lake ecosystem, no further clean up or monitoring was recommended.

Autobiographical vignettes in annual report CEO letters as a lens to understand how leadership is conceived and enacted

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine autobiographical vignettes that are embedded in the annual report letters to shareholders of chief executive officers (CEOs). The aim is to reveal the capacity of this narrative to self-construct leader identity, show how they can help CEOs attain legitimacy and how they help CEOs to exert management control.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is positioned within literature that focuses on the importance of the annual report CEO letter and the strategic use of CEO autobiographical vignettes therein. Three autobiographical vignettes included in letters to shareholders signed by E. Hunter Harrison, CEO of Canadian National Railway (2004, 2005 and 2007), are analysed using close reading techniques. This involved the authors separately reading each vignette by slowing down the reading process to aid understanding of the text’s “inner workings”. Several close readings of each vignette were conducted until a consensus was reached between the authors.FindingsAutobiographical vignettes have strong potential to be used strategically, as rhetorical devices, to help CEOs exert management control, facilitate change, shape leader-follower relationships and sustain self-legitimacy.Originality/valueThis paper is the first within the accounting domain to highlight the potential for autobiographical narrative in a CEO’s annual letter to shareholders to convey corporate information (including strategic intent), to construct leader identity and to exert management control.

Hazard ranking for railway transport of dangerous goods in Canada

Transport Canada mandated in 2014 that Canadian railways conduct risk assessments for the transport of dangerous goods along corridors considered critical based on the type and quantities of dangerous goods transported (key routes). This regulation resulted from the public concern associated with recent rail incidents involving the release of dangerous goods and the increased amount of oil moving by rail. Part of a risk assessment involves the analysis and assessment of hazards, which allows the development of hazard management strategies and assessment of the resources required to mitigate them where necessary. This paper presents a hazard ranking tool for railway corridors that transport dangerous goods. This tool ranks hazard levels associated with the most common derailment causes and crossing accidents, recorded in Canada, based on train frequency, speed, track characteristics, the allocation of safety strategies, among other factors. The tool was reviewed by personnel of Canadian National Railway for relevancy and applicability to a Canadian Class I rail operation. This paper includes a detailed methodology and tables developed for the assignment of values to the hazard rankings. Two examples of the application of this tool to real track conditions are presented.

Jason Sean Ridler. Maestro of Science: Omond McKillop Solandt and Government Science in War and Hostile Peace, 1939–1956. xv + 350 pp., figs., tables, bibl., index. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015. $55 (cloth).

Jason Sean Ridler. <i>Maestro of Science: Omond McKillop Solandt and Government Science in War and Hostile Peace, 1939–1956</i>. xv + 350 pp., figs., tables, bibl., index. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015. $55 (cloth).

Monitoring During Lateral Bridge Slide

Slide-in bridge construction (SIBC) is an accelerated bridge construction method. In U.S. state of the art and state of the practice today, the bridge superstructure is moved by sliding laterally into the final alignment following a sequence of construction and demolition events. SIBC implementation components require a temporary support structure, a slide system with railing girders and polytetrafluoroethylene pads or rollers, and an actuating system to initiate and maintain the slide movement. The M-100 bridge over the Canadian National (CN) railway was the third SIBC project implemented by the Michigan Department of Transportation. Each SIBC implementation has been so far unique because the unknowns include slide properties contributing to friction between surfaces, pushing and pulling force levels, and monitoring and controlling the force levels. The purpose of standardization is to develop repeatable procedures for the SIBC method. One aspect of standardization is to develop an understanding of the structural response and the forces developed in the system during slide activities. This understanding requires documentation of various SIBC practices, simulation of slide activities, and monitoring the structural response. The activities of the M-100 road over the CN railway bridge slide, instrumentation and monitoring of the structural response, and the use of acquired acceleration data to calculate the forces that developed during the slide activities are presented.

Case study of use of falling weight deflectometer to investigate railway infrastructure constructed upon soft subgrades

Falling weight deflectometer (FWD) testing was conducted along with embankment and subgrade sampling over 210 km (130 miles) of Canadian National Railway’s Lac La Biche Subdivision, which runs between Edmonton and Fort McMurray, as a part of a larger investigation of the line for increased axle loads. The resulting measurements were evaluated for their ability to identify soft subgrades. Two analyses were conducted to this end. First, the statistical distribution of peak deflections recorded by the FWD was investigated for different types of subgrade material. Second, the properties of track substructure were studied by characterizing the deflection time histories using a dynamic model of a single mass on a viscoelastic foundation and least-squares curve fitting. Four characteristic types of deflection time histories were identified for differing substructure conditions. Simplified dynamic modelling of railway track substructure showed that where relatively thick embankment exists over subgrade, the response of track is overdamped behavior.

The economic impacts of constructing an ATV bypass route in the Town of Conception Bay South

&lt;p&gt;The development and maintenance of trails that permit the use of off-road vehicles present tremendous opportunities for tourism product development. Newfoundland and Labrador is hoping to capitalize from trail users by building a province-wide trail network using the former Canadian National Railway line. Since the section of the trail through the Town of Conception Bay South is non-motorized, the Town hopes to build an ATV Bypass Route in order to draw all-terrain vehicle (ATV) users and create a continuous trail for them. This paper presents information on the economic impact of the ATV industry and case studies from similar jurisdictions in Canada and the United States to support the argument that ATV tourism is a good investment.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Keywords: &lt;/strong&gt;economic impact, trail development, tourism, recreation, all terrain vehicles, Newfoundland&lt;/p&gt;

Value Creation by Active Investors (and Its Potential for Addressing Social Problems)

A distinguished Columbia academic discusses the methods and outcomes of “active investing” with the co‐founder of a leading private equity firm and a former senior partner of a well‐known hedge fund. In the case studies used by both panelists to illustrate their investment selection and management processes, the investors provided not only capital, but oversight and expertise that helped bring about significant increases in the productivity and value of their portfolio companies. What's more, in both cases, the changes that contributed to high returns for investors also ended up having major benefits for the companies' non‐investor stakeholders, especially their consumers.In the first of the two cases, Paul Hilal explains the thinking behind Pershing Square's $1.1 billion purchase of 14% of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 2012. With the help of intensive “fundamental” analysis of the company, Hilal recognized that Canadian Pacific was substantially underperforming its rival, the Canadian National Railway, in a number of important ways. And when CP's management and board rejected his plan for changes, Hilal led a proxy battle that ended in a landslide victory for the proposed slate of directors, including Hilal himself. Then, after bringing in a new CEO, the restructured board presided over operating changes that, during Pershing's four‐year ownership, increased the market value of CP from $8 billion to $30 billion. By 2016, when Pershing sold its investment (for $4 billion), Canadian Pacific was “shipping 20% more freight … 40% faster than ever before, with record on‐time performance, 40% fewer locomotives, 35% fewer people, and 14% improved fuel efficiency—all while maintaining an industry‐leading safety record.”In the second case, Russ Carson describes the success of Welsh, Carson, Anderson, and Stowe in turning its purchase in 1998 of a single oncology practice in Denver into a publicly traded company with more than 90 outpatient cancer centers throughout the U.S. When it was sold in 2011, US Oncology was producing $4 billion in revenue while employing 1,000 oncologists, who, as significant equity owners, shared in the success of Welsh Carson. Using modern management techniques to create “enormous efficiencies out of an extraordinarily fragmented system,” Carson and his colleagues created “the single largest—and, by all accounts, most reputable—outpatient provider of cancer services in the country.” One of the keys to this success was “getting the doctors to spend their time seeing patients, not looking for records,” which contributed greatly to Welsh Carson's ability to improve “both the quantity and quality of cancer care in the 90 communities that we were operating in.”

Railroad bridge monitoring using wireless smart sensors

Railroads carry more than 40% of the freight, in terms of tons per mile transported in North America. A critical portion of the railroad infrastructure is the more than 100,000 bridges, which occur, on the average, every 1.4 miles of track. Railroads have a limited budget for capital investment. Therefore, decisions on which bridges to repair/replace become critical for both safety and economy. North American railroads regularly inspected bridges to ensure safe operation that can meet transport demands, using inspection reports to decide which bridges may need maintenance, replacement, or further investigation. Current bridge inspection practices recommend observing bridge responses under live load to help assess bridge condition. However, measuring bridge responses under train loads in the field is a challenging, expensive, and complex task. This research explores the potential of using wireless smart sensors (WSS) to measure bridge responses under revenue service traffic that can be used to inform bridge management decisions. Wireless strain gages installed on the rail measure real-time train loads. Wireless accelerometers and magnetic strain gages installed in the bridge measure associated bridge responses. The system is deployed and validated on a double-track steel truss bridge on the south side of Chicago, Illinois, owned by the Canadian National Railway. A calibrated finite element model of the bridge with known train input load estimated the responses of the bridge at arbitrary, unmeasured locations, showing the possibility of applying the system for decision making process. These results demonstrate the potential of WSS technology to assist with railroad bridge inspection and management practice. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Foundation Event Promises a Room With a View

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Annual Meeting HighlightsFull AccessFoundation Event Promises a Room With a ViewLindsey McClenathanLindsey McClenathanSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:13 Feb 2015https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2015.2b10AbstractToronto’s CN Tower will be the location of the American Psychiatric Foundation’s annual benefit to support its public-education and research initiatives.The American Psychiatric Foundation (APF) hopes you will mark Saturday, May 16, on your calendar. That’s when it will be hosting a special event at Horizons restaurant on the LookOut level of the CN Tower in Toronto.Attendees of APF’s annual benefit will get a panoramic view of Toronto at night while helping support important research and education programs.CN TowerAs a charitable subsidiary of APA, the foundation holds a benefit each year in conjunction with the APA annual meeting to support its public-education and research initiatives. This year’s event will be held from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. APF has planned a wonderful evening including delicious food and a program honoring recipients of the 2015 Awards for Advancing Minority Mental Health.For those looking for an adrenaline rush, guests will have the ability to join the tourists on the Glass Floor, offering a view that extends 1,122 feet straight down! Guests who prefer their adventure with a slightly more secure feeling under their feet can step into the outdoor SkyTerrace to take in the views—and a nice breeze off Lake Ontario.Hosting the annual event over 1,000 feet above ground might be appropriate for the foundation, as it continues to reach for the sky in pursuit of its mission: advancing mental health, overcoming mental illness, and eliminating stigma.Proceeds from this benefit help support the programs and initiatives of the APF, all of which embody APA’s proud tradition of ensuring humane care and effective treatment for all individuals with mental disorders. These programs are far-ranging and include fellowships and grants to foster careers in psychiatric research, annual awards that honor and recognize exceptional psychiatric achievements—including awards honoring outstanding women, minorities, and international medical graduates—and support for mental health services and policy research carried out by the APF and APA’s Division of Research.APF also conducts numerous public-education programs to promote awareness of mental illnesses and the effectiveness of treatment, the importance of early intervention, access to care, and the need for high-quality services and treatment for all members of our society. APF has selected some groups as particular priorities, and these include school children, military members and veterans, incarcerated people with mental illness, and those living with HIV.When you purchase a ticket to the APF benefit event, you are supporting all of the above initiatives and more. As you take the elevator up to the LookOut level, know that the foundation is rising with you and getting closer to achieving its dream of mental health for all.Not only that, but you get a chance to relax and mingle with colleagues at one of Toronto’s most popular tourist attractions, as the CN Tower hosts approximately 1.5 million visitors each year. In fact, this tower—built by Canadian National Railways in 1976—was classified as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1995. Standing more than 1,815 feet tall, it held the title of World’s Tallest Tower, Building, and Freestanding Structure from completion in 1976 until 2010. Tickets for the benefit event will go on sale in March. ■Information about APF can be accessed here. ISSUES NewArchived

Evaluating the Effect of Fiber Reinforcement on the Anisotropic Undrained Stiffness and Strength of Peat

AbstractThis paper presents the results of an investigation into the role of peat fibers in the development of anisotropic stiffness and strength within peat samples taken from below three Canadian National Railway embankments across Canada. These sites include two from northern Alberta on the Edson and Lac-La-Biche subdivisions and one from the Levis subdivision in southern Quebec. The peat samples were collected in Shelby tubes and were subjected to a program of consolidated undrained triaxial testing. These samples represented a wide variation in fiber content and degree of humification. The measured pore-pressure response during undrained loading indicated that the peat samples were undergoing an anisotropic elastic response to loading. This pore-pressure response was similar in the peat from all three sites, with an anisotropic pore-pressure parameter, a, of approximately 0.3. The stiffness and strength of the different peats were also similar, with an elastic modulus of approximately 1.7–2.2 MPa and...