Analytical methods and simulation models to assess innovative operational measures and technologies for rail port terminals: the case of Valencia Principe Felipe terminal

The topic of freight transport by rail is a complex theme and, in recent years, a main issue of European policy. The legislation evolution and the White Paper 2011 have demonstrated the European intention to re-launch this sector. The challenge is to promote the intermodal transport system to the detriment of road freight transport. In this context intermodal freight terminals, play a primary role for the supply chain, they are the connection point between the various transport nodes and the nodal points where the freight are handled, stored and transferred between different modes to final customer. To achieve the purpose, it is strengthen the improvement of existing intermodal freight terminals and the development of innovative intermodal freight terminals towards higher performance (ERRAC, 2012). Many terminal performances improvements have been proposed and sometime experimented. They are normally basing on combinations of operational measures and innovative technologies (e.g. automatic horizontal and parallel storage and handling, automated gate and sensors for tracking systems data exchange) tested in various terminals, with often-contradictory results. The research work described in this paper (developed within the Capacity4Rail EU project) focusses on the assessment of effects that these innovations can have in the intermodal freight terminals combined in various alternative consistent effective scenarios. The methodological framework setup to assess these innovations is basing on a combination of analytical methods based on sequential algorithms and discrete events simulation models. The output of this assessment method are key performance indicators (KPIs) selected according to terminals typologies and related to different aspects (e.g. management, operation and organization). The present paper illustrates the application of the methodological framework, tuned on the operation of various intermodal terminals, for the validation on today operation and the assessment of possible future scenarios to the case study of the Principe Felipe sea-rail terminal in Valencia

Multi-objective Model on Connection Time Optimization in Sea-rail Intermodal Transport

Container sea-rail intermodal transport operation needs to consider some special demands both in volume and time connection. That means container sea-rail intermodal transport is a type of demand responsive transport between railroad trains and marine ships, vice versa. It needs to operate container trains according to the demands of ships in OD, volume, as well as the arrival and departure time. Basing on this responsive demand characteristic of sea-rail intermodal transport, the paper establishes a multi-objective optimal model for its connection time, aiming for maximizing the profits of carriers and minimizing the total transport costs of shippers, as well as minimizing the connection time between container trains and ships to optimizing the intermodal transport system. Modified genetic algorithm is adopted. The calculation results demonstrate that the model could be used to solve the connection problem of container sea-rail intermodal transport involved with volume and time connections

Impact of megaships on the performance of port container terminals

Following the advent of megaships, the performance requirements of container terminals have increased significantly, highlighting necessary changes in their layout, infrastructure, and equipment. We focus on the impact of megaships on a terminal within the port network of the Italian Region of Liguria, in terms of its ability to manage the flow of imports from arrival to inland destinations. We use discrete event simulation techniques to analyze the operations of a terminal and evaluate the relevant performance indices in different scenarios, which vary as a function of the \u201ccall size\u201d of the larger containerships. The possibility of guaranteeing a more balanced modal split (favoring rail transport) for the inland distribution of containers is also evaluated. Dwell times at the yard and turnaround times at the berth are considered, with the objective of achieving a modal split of inland transport consisting of no less than 40% rail. Our results show that this objective can be achieved if a higher dwell time for outgoing containers is allowed

Simulation framework of port operation and recovery planning

This study proposes a framework of simulation tool suites for ports to evaluate their response to disaster crisis and port security policies. The focus is containerized cargos that are imported through ports in the U.S. with final destinations also in the U.S. A crisis, such as a man-made or natural disaster, may cause a delay at the seaport. The down time of ports may result in severe economic losses. Thus, when a seaport cannot normally operate, it is important to minimize the impact caused by the disrupted freight flow. Port security policies also have a significant impact on the port operation efficiency. This model developed in this study evaluates the performance of re-routing strategies under different crisis scenarios and can help the user to find an effective re-routing decision and analyze security policies of a port. This model also analyzes security policies of the simulation port

Analytical methods and simulation models to assess innovative operational measures and technologies for rail port terminals: the case of Valencia Principe Felipe terminal

[EN] The topic of freight transport by rail is a complex theme and, in recent years, a main issue of European policy. The legislation evolution and the White Paper 2011 have demonstrated the European intention to re-launch this sector. The challenge is to promote the intermodal transport system to the detriment of road freight transport. In this context intermodal freight terminals, play a primary role for the supply chain, they are the connection point between the various transport nodes and the nodal points where the freight are handled, stored and transferred between different modes to final customer. To achieve the purpose, it is strengthen the improvement of existing intermodal freight terminals and the development of innovative intermodal freight terminals towards higher performance (ERRAC, 2012). Many terminal performances improvements have been proposed and sometime experimented. They are normally basing on combinations of operational measures and innovative technologies (e.g. automatic horizontal and parallel storage and handling, automated gate and sensors for tracking systems data exchange) tested in various terminals, with often-contradictory results. The research work described in this paper (developed within the Capacity4Rail EU project) focusses on the assessment of effects that these innovations can have in the intermodal freight terminals combined in various alternative consistent effective scenarios. The methodological framework setup to assess these innovations is basing on a combination of analytical methods based on sequential algorithms and discrete events simulation models. The output of this assessment method are key performance indicators (KPIs) selected according to terminals typologies and related to different aspects (e.g. management, operation and organization). The present paper illustrates the application of the methodological framework, tuned on the operation of various intermodal terminals, for the validation on today operation and the assessment of possible future scenarios to the case study of the Principe Felipe sea-rail terminal in Valencia.Capodilupo, L.; Furió Pruñonosa, S.; Marinacci, C.; Ricci, S.; Rizzetto, L. (2016). Analytical methods and simulation models to assess innovative operational measures and technologies for rail port terminals: the case of Valencia Principe Felipe terminal. En XII Congreso de ingeniería del transporte. 7, 8 y 9 de Junio, Valencia (España). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 1445-1455. https://doi.org/10.4995/CIT2016.2015.3398OCS1445145

Evaluation of Container Terminal Arrangement By Computer Simulation

With growing ship size and demand for effective handling of container cargoes in recent years, automation has inevitably took place in almost all aspect of modern terminal operation. So far, automation has been led by the large terminals in Europe and North America and soon it will become a pressure for terminals in developing countries to go for automation. The drawbacks heavily rely on the initial investment cost and question arises with regard to effectiveness of automation for medium and small size container terminals. A visual environment that simulates container terminal operation is developed to facilitate investigation advantage and disadvantages of automated container terminal compared to conventional container terminal. A discrete event model for container handling process and agent-based model for path mover flow system is built and validated based on operating terminal in real world and visually simulated to serve the objective. The result of the computer simulation is an evaluation of performance metric for both terminal concepts under similar arrangements. In addition, visual simulation was able to notify the area where advantage and disadvantage of both concepts will take place during operation

A method integrating simulation and reinforcement learning for operation scheduling in container terminals

The objective of operation scheduling in container terminals is to determine a schedule that minimizes time for loading or unloading a given set of containers. This paper presents a method integrating reinforcement learning and simulation to optimize operation scheduling in container terminals. The introduced method uses a simulation model to construct the system environment while the Q-learning algorithm (reinforcement learning algorithm) is applied to learn optimal dispatching rules for different equipment (e.g. yard cranes, yard trailers). The optimal scheduling scheme is obtained by the interaction of the Q-learning algorithm and simulation environment. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method, a lower bound is calculated considering the characteristics of the scheduling problem in container terminals. Finally, numerical experiments are provided to illustrate the validity of the proposed method