Assigning stops for container trains to perform freight operations along the route

For freight transportation services that involve the permanent formation of rolling stock and the ability to make stops at stations along the route for freight operations, it is necessary to create a methodology for determining the optimal plan of stops. The subject of the research is the organization of traffic management for container trains of permanent formation that stop at stations along the route to carry out freight operations. The authors conclude that the provisions for developing a freight train formation plan cannot be used to adapt it to the needs of container train of permanent formations making passing stops. But some approaches to developing a plan for long-distance passenger train formation can be taken as a basis. To develop the methodology, it is proposed to distribute the total volume of container traffic between trains on individual routes (including those where trains skip some stops) taking into account compliance with a list of restrictions. The value of operating costs is used as a criterion to evaluate the efficiency of the stops plan for the set of container trains of permanent formation at the railway district. For railway districts where more than 5 stations, determining a rational stop plan becomes a large-scale task. Authors propose using an algorithm that can be implemented in any programming language to facilitate the processing of source data and the creation of a mathematical representation of a linear programming problem. The results of the research include the method for assigning stops to container trains of permanent formation and an algorithm for automated task of research formation.