Handbook of Operations Research Applications at Railroads

Dr. Bruce Patty is the Vice President of Transportation Analytics at Veritec Solutions.  For over 25 years, Dr. Patty has provided guidance and insights for leading transportation companies such as American Airlines, CSX Transportation, and Pacer Stacktrain.  His academic background in Network Optimization and his experience in passenger and freight transportation has provided Dr. Patty with considerable expertise regarding a wide range of issues in these industries. While at American Airlines, Bruce developed their pioneering automated flight routing tool that scheduled aircraft so that they satisfied overnight maintenance requirements.  He participated on an Edelman Prize finalist team in the area of Crew Scheduling and then led rail consulting projects at Conrail.   He went on from AA to be a Director of Operations Research at CSX Transportation where he developed workload planning models of classification yards.    Dr. Patty left CSX to develop the transportation practice at MCGI, where he led or participated on consulting engagements with companies such as Norfolk Southern, CSX, BAX Global, and Delta Air Lines.  Prior to joining Veritec, Bruce was the AVP of Equipment Strategy and Planning at Pacer Stacktrain.  As part of his responsibilities, he managed an annual budget of $70 million, providing containers and chassis for use by Pacer’s customers.  He pioneered the use of analytics to manage the chassis fleet and keep the chassis-to-container ratio at an industry-wide low. Dr. Patty received his BS in Systems Engineering from the University of Arizona, and then a MS and Ph.D. in Operations Research from Southern Methodist University.   He served on the faculty at the University of Southern California, has served on the Board of Directors for INFORMS, and has published several papers and presented at a multitude of conferences.  He has lived in Marin County, California with his wife, Paula, for over 20 years and enjoys travel, golf, and relentlessly rooting on the University of Arizona Wildcats.

Introduction.- Train Scheduling.- Locomotive Scheduling Problem.- Simulation of Line of Road Operations.- Car Scheduling/Trip Planning.- Railway Blocking Process.- Crew Scheduling Problem.- Empty Railcar Distribution.- Network Analysis and Simulation.- Simulation of Yard and Terminal Operations.- Operations Research in Rail Pricing and Revenus Management.- Intermodal Rail.