Rail Freight Transport Optimization, a Case Study of Standard Gauge Railway Transport in Kenya

Abstract

Railway freight transport systems involve integration of complex decision processes which aim at improving overall efficiency of the systems. Depending on the nature of the working environment, optimization of railway freight transport performance requires compound mathematical formulation and/or programing. Optimization of railway freight transport is a sub-class of transport problems in operations research. This study aimed at optimization of freight transport through standard gauge railways (SGR). The study examined factors influencing SGR revenue collection and how such factors can be modeled or adjusted to increase revenue collection. This study was anchored on optimization theory. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used in this study. Qualitative results showed that main operational challenges, in order of weight, included inadequate capacity, multiple handling and scarce labor, uncoordinated operations and planning, SGR network infrastructures limitation, exorbitant charges and poor communication. It was also observed that suitable remedies to these challenges included formulation of integrated transport policy, adoption of appropriate capital and financial policy allocation system, merging KPA and KRC and reviewing SGR freight tariff, among others. For quantitative responses, time series and regression models were used. In the former model, revenue collection since January 2018 till April 2021 exhibited a general increasing trend. This was further confirmed using exponential smoothing, an aspect of time series modeling. Key factors that influence revenue collection were observed to be number of available wagons and transit time. From regression modeling, number of available wagons has a significant positive influence while transit time influences revenue collection negatively. This is true since the corresponding p – values were less than 0.05. Based on these observations, the study recommended that the proposed policies and strategies be implemented to improve freight capacity and revenue collection of SGR freight transportation.