Optimisation problems of freight wagons fleet formation

Abstract

For a railway enterprise one of the main objectives is to minimize the size of rail freight wagon fleet in order to reduce exploitation expenses. Rail freight wagon fleet composition problem is to settle on an optimal structure and size of freight wagon fleet in order to respond to the comparative profitability of freight wagons. A railway operator must have potential to respond to the actual transport demand if it wants to reach a raised level of competitiveness on the transport market. Consequently, it is necessary thet the composition and the size of freight wagons fleet correspond to the structure and the size of freight transportation service demand. A methodology for determining an optimal rail freight wagon fleet formation is defined. This approach has been tried for the case of State Enterprise's "Lithuanian Railways" freight wagons fleet.