Strategic and tactical issues in the transportation of freight, hazardous materials and relief-items

货运对现代社会至关重要，因为它将生产者与地理上分散的消费者联系起来，从而确保货物的流动和可用性。北美拥有广泛的多式联运基础设施，用于运输（常规）货物、有害物质（危险品）和救济物品供应。然而，对运输基础设施的投资没有跟上运量的增加，从而导致资产的利用率达到或接近于产能，而在随机或故意破坏和危险事故之后，资产无法使用进一步加剧了这种情况。本研究计划将提出策略、设计框架和开发方法，以确保运输资产的最佳利用和货物的有效流动。为此目的，将探讨三个平行的主题。本研究计划的主题1将调查决定铁路-卡车多式联运系统对随机和故意中断的弹性的战略和战术问题，然后提出分析框架和缓解/恢复策略，以应对此类中断。主题2将侧重于铁路危险品运输，并将开发新的框架和方法，通过以下方式降低危险品风险：采用大数据分析技术；鼓励使用较长的路线；投资新的基础设施；设计更高效的响应网络。主题3将侧重于救济物品货运的运输，即人道主义物流，并将利用数据分析提出运输网络的最佳设计，以促进在灾害事件发生后公平分配供应品和有效疏散受影响人口。拟议的研究计划和预期成果在三个方面对运筹学/运输领域具有重要意义：首先，制定分析方法（即数学程序和解决方法）和缓解策略，以应对随机和故意的中断，并确保高效和有弹性的铁路-卡车多式联运；第二，推进数据驱动的框架和创新技术，以降低铁路危险品运输的风险；第三，提出改进救助物资运输网络设计与运行的方法。此外，从应用于加拿大交通基础设施的发展中获得的见解将有利于不同的利益相关者。例如，铁路多式联运部分将对最佳位置和保护资源部署水平有更好的了解，以最大限度地减少中断的影响，加拿大运输部将对整个铁路网络的危害风险和降低风险的创新工具有更准确的信息，人道主义组织可以利用这些发现使他们的网络反应更快，效率更高，更公平。

Freight transportation is crucial to modern society because it connects producers to geographically separated consumers thereby ensuring the movement and availability of goods. North America possesses an extensive multimodal transportation infrastructure that are used to move (regular) freight, hazardous materials (hazmat), and relief-item supplies. However, investments in the transportation infrastructure have not kept pace with the increased volume thereby resulting in at or near capacity utilization of the assets, which is further exacerbated by the unavailability of the assets following a random or intentional disruption, and hazmat accident. This research program will propose strategies, design frameworks and develop methodologies to ensure optimal utilization of transportation assets and efficient movement of goods. To this end, three parallel themes would be pursued. Theme 1 of this research program will investigate the strategic and tactical issues that determine the resilience of a rail-truck intermodal transportation system to both random and intentional disruptions, and then propose analytical frameworks and mitigation/recovery strategies to cope with such disruptions. Theme 2 will focus on rail hazmat shipments and will develop novel frameworks and methodologies to mitigate hazmat risk by: employing big data analytics techniques; incentivizing using longer routes; investing in new infrastructure; and, designing more efficient response network. Theme 3 will focus on the transportation of relief-item freight, i.e., humanitarian logistics, and will make use of data analytics to propose the optimal design of the transportation network to facilitate equitable distribution of supplies and efficient evacuation of the impacted population following a disaster event. The proposed research program and the anticipated outcomes is significant for the operations research/transportation domain in three ways: first, develop analytical approaches (i.e., mathematical program and solution methods) and mitigation strategies to cope with random and intentional disruption, and ensure efficient and resilient rail-truck intermodal transportation; second, advance data-driven frameworks and innovative techniques to mitigate risk from rail hazmat shipments; and third, propose methodologies to improve the design and operation of relief-item transportation network. In addition, the insights gained from applying the developments to the Canadian transportation infrastructure will be beneficial to the different stakeholders. For instance, rail intermodal segment will have superior understanding about the optimal location and level of protective resource deployment to minimize the impact of disruption, Transport Canada would have more precise information about hazmat risk across the rail network and the innovative tools to reduce risk, and humanitarian organizations can use the findings to make their network more responsive, efficient and equitable.