The location-allocation model for multi-classification-yard location problem.

Highlights • This paper constructs a bi-level programming model, the plan of no investment is incorporated and the capital recovery factor is introduced. • An efficient and effective simulated annealing algorithm is proposed and applied for solving the model. • A large-scale China railroad system, which is one of the largest railway networks in the world, is used to test our method. Abstract This paper proposes a bi-level programming model for the multi-classification-yard location (MCYL) problem. The upper-level is intended to find an optimal establishment or improvement strategy for candidate nodes with a budget constraint, which is involved with the selection of potential yard locations and the determination of yard size and capacity. The lower-level aims to obtain the least costly plan of railcar reclassification considering yard classification capacity and tracks, on the basis of the strategy given by the upper-level. A simulated annealing (SA) algorithm is then applied to solve the MCYL problem of a large-scale China railway network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]