Route optimization for fuel delivery to railway transport using the Clarke - Wright method

This paper addresses the optimization of fuel and lubricating materials (FSM) delivery routes to special rolling stock on railways using the Clarke-Wright algorithm. The relevance of the study is determined by the need to solve the problem of combining mobile service vehicles (fuel tankers) with service locations (fuel depots) while minimizing logistics costs.

Based on real data from the West Siberian Railway section, a shortest distance matrix between five stations along road networks was constructed. The classical Clarke-Wright Savings Algorithm was applied one of the most effective methods for solving vehicle routing problems with capacity constraints. The algorithm was implemented in Python with step-by-step visualization of the route merging process.

The Clarke-Wright method reduced the number of fuel tankers from five (individual delivery to each client) to two, with a total route length of 86,9 km. The savings in transport vehicles was 60 %, resulting in significant reductions in operating expenses for fleet maintenance, driver wages, and fuel consumption.

The scientific novelty of the work lies in applying the classical Clarke-Wright algorithm to the specific task of optimizing fuel supply to special rolling stock on railways with detailed step-by-step implementation and result analysis. The obtained results demonstrate the practical effectiveness of the method and its applicability to railway transport. The proposed approach can be extended to other network sections and modified to account for dynamic constraints (time windows, variable demand volumes).

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