A Robust Metaheuristic for the Rail Shuttle Routing Problem with Uncertainty: A Real Case Study in the Le Havre Port

Abstract

This study addresses the Rail Shuttle Routing Problem (RSRP) in the Le Havre port, where rail shuttles carry out the transfer of containers between maritime terminals and the multimodal terminal. The transfer times of shuttles and the empty travel times of locomotives both depend on several factors and are supposedly uncertain. The aim of this work is to improve the performance of the container transfer system in the Le Havre port, by minimising the total empty travel time of locomotives and protecting against delays. The deterministic problem is first modelled as a Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows (VRPTW); then, uncertainties are introduced into this model and Robust Ant Colony Optimisation (RACO) is proposed to solve the problem under uncertainties. Keywords: Port Logistics, Railway Operations, Multimodal Terminal, Ant Colony Optimisation, Uncertainty