Solving Regional Infrastructure Bottlenecks: Rail Allocation Policies for a Coal Terminal

The Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal (DBCT) in Queensland, Australia is experiencing continuing pressure to increase its throughput as a result of strong demands for coal in the world market. Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) has investigated alternative rail allocation policies and evaluated their likely impact on the terminal's throughput and stockpile levels. This paper presents a study using simulation techniques to model the DBCT coal allocation system and the Goonyella rail network. The results show that two of the rail allocation policies can provide significant reduction in stockpile levels, without significantly changing the variability in rail supply.