Research on the current technology of developing and adjusting train formation plans on the Mongolian railways

Abstract

In recent years, Mongolia’s railway policy has evolved from a simple transportation strategy to a comprehensive tool for diversifying the economy and promoting sustainable growth. There has been a 30% increase in the volume of loading and unloading at the railway stations of the Ulaanbaatar Railway, leading to an increase in the idle time of local railwagons and a decrease in the turnover of railwagons, resulting in a higher demand for railwagons. These factors have necessitated a shift from traditional train management methods to integrated approaches that allow to effectively utilize the prospective parameters of the throughput and carrying capacity of the Mongolian railway network. The basis of the road’s activities is the work with local wagons, which are formed into sectional, export, and combined trains – the total number of these train assignments is 41. The current train formation plan has been analyzed, which provides for 26 even and 22 odd train assignments, with a total of 100 groups of wagons selected. The formation is carried out by 12 railway stations. Considering the large number of low-capacity train assignments, wagons are idle for a long time, which increases the overall idle time of the local wagon. Proposals have been developed and presented to change the current formation plan in order to reduce the number of assignments and the number of groups included in them. An economic assessment of the proposed optimization solution has been provided.