An Empirical Study on China's Inter-provincial Coal Distribution by Railway

Coal transportation system plays an important role in guaranteeing the safety and stability of China's coal supply. How to distribute coal resources among provinces in China by railway was discussed. An optimization model was set up to test the rationality of China's coal distribution. Furthermore, by using the model we analyzed the optimal transportation pattern. The model takes transportation cost as optimization goal and the volumes of inter-provincial coal transportation by railway as decision variables. Findings indicate that the pattern of coal railway transportation among provinces changes in four aspects and the transportation cost and the average transport distance decrease compared with that before optimization. Based on the research, we suggest that six coal transportation channels should be strengthened constructing and transportation rate for coastal cities in southeast China reduced.