Virtual Sorting: Improving Organization of Moving and Processing of Empty Car Flows

The growth in railway cargo carriage, followed by the search for its more efficient implementation results in the need to improve the regulatory framework for interaction of all participants in the transportation process on railways and the technology of organization of moving and processing of car flows on public tracks, reducing existing costs. This explains topicality of reducing shunting operations through flexible arrangement of wagons by destination stations. The objective of the study is to develop the technology of «virtual sorting of empty cars». The work has used methods of system analysis and the specific tools of railway traffic management and control. The technology is based on replacing physical rearrangement of empty cars when performing shunting work by introducing changes into the documents, that accompany the car, regarding the destination station and the recipient. It allows to reduce the planning horizon of turnover of empty cars by clarifying their destination assignments within the delivery process and, as a consequence, to obtain a significant economic effect by reducing the costs of processing transit car flows, by reducing the risks of not providing empty cars for loading, by attracting additional loading volumes, by accelerating the turnover of cars and other effects. Ultimately, the implementation of the suggested technology can increase the competitiveness of railway transport.