A Planning Method for Alternative Truck Transport During Disruption of Rail Freight Services

Rail freight transport in Japan operates on a nationwide scale, and its disruption by natural disasters has widespread impacts on the logistics system. To restore transportation capacity at an early stage, rail freight operators collaborate with freight forwarders to implement alternative transport measures, where trucks play a crucial role. In this paper, we propose a planning method for alternative truck transport that supports the initial response to such disruptions. Specifically, we address the problem of determining truck departure times at freight stations and assigning containers to trucks under capacity and priority considerations. We formulate this problem as a mathematical programming model and develop a solution method that maximizes the number of containers transported while reflecting container priorities. Finally, through numerical experiments on several test instances, the effectiveness of the proposed method was confirmed, demonstrating its potential to support the development of alternative truck transport plans in the event of rail service disruptions.