RAS Problem Solving Competition

The 2026 RAS Problem Solving Competition

Operations Research and Advanced Analytical Approaches Applied to Real-World Rail Problems

First Prize: $2,000  --  Second Prize: $1,000  --  Third Prize: $750

 

Railroad Blocking Problem for North American Class I Railroads


Full description of the competition



The INFORMS Railway Applications Section is pleased to announce the 2026 Problem Solving Competition.  
 

The INFORMS Railway Applications Section (RAS) 2026 Problem Solving Competition centers on developing innovative optimization approaches for the Railroad Blocking Problem, a fundamental planning challenge in North American Class I freight rail systems. At its core, the problem concerns how railcars are consolidated into blocks at classification yards and transported intact across the network.

Within the broader planning hierarchy—blocking, train routing, and scheduling—this competition specifically targets the blocking stage, which serves as the strategic foundation for downstream decisions. Participants are required to construct a zero-based blocking plan, determining which blocks to form, how commodities traverse sequences of blocks, and which physical routes these blocks follow through the rail network.

The problem is formulated in a static setting with all demand known in advance, emphasizing structural design rather than temporal dynamics. By tackling the inherent combinatorial complexity of block formation and flow routing, the competition seeks to stimulate advances in large-scale freight network optimization and improve the efficiency of rail transportation systems.

Awards:

  • First Prize: $2,000
  • Second Prize: $1,000
  • Third Prize: $750

Eligibiliity:

Practitioners of operations research and management science who are interested in solving problems in the railroad domain using Operations Research and Analytics tools are welcome to participate. Registration is open to all except for INFORMS Rail Applications Section (RAS) officers and organizing committee members. Likewise, members of the organizing committee may NOT help or guide any participating team. Teams of up to five members can participate. At least one member of each finalist team must be available in-person or virtually to answer questions at the 2026 INFORMS Annual Meeting. Winners will be announced after the session.

Can I publish?

Yes, you can. In fact, RAS encourages you to do so. Anyone can use the RAS competition problem and provided datasets in their publication. References to year-specific problem competitions are given in the URL, and as such you can reference the year-specific competition URL which will not be changed.

Important dates:

  • April 23, 2026 — Initial release of the problem statement and demo data for submission pipeline testing.
    This stage is intended for testing purposes only. Submissions made during this demo phase will not be considered official and will not count toward the final evaluation.

  • May 1, 2026 — Official release of the full problem statement, full dataset, and the official solution and evaluation files.
    The leaderboard will be rescored after the official release.

  • June 20, 2026 — Registration deadline

  • May 11, 2026 – August 21, 2026 — Q&A period

  • August 21, 2026 — Kaggle competition submission deadline

  • August 24, 2026 — Solution paper submission deadline

  • September 7, 2026 — Announcement of finalists

  • September 30, 2026 — Deadline for finalists to submit presentation videos

  • October 12–16, 2026 — Finalist video conference with the judges

  • November 1–4, 2026 — Finalists’ presentations and announcement of the winner at the INFORMS Annual Meeting (RAS Cluster), if no travel restrictions apply and the event is held in person

Registration:

To register, please send an e-mail to rasproblemsolving2026@gmail.com with the subject line RASPSC2026 by June 20, 2026. Please include your team name, affiliation, the names of all team members, and their e-mail addresses. A link for accessing the data will be provided after registration.

Further information:

The Problem Solving Competition and any related materials are provided solely for the purposes of this competition. Participants and users take full responsibility and liability for their use of the materials.

Competition chairs:

Xuesong Zhou, Competition Chair
Professor of Transportation Systems
xzhou74@asu.edu

Natalia Zuniga Garcia, Co-Chair
Computational Transportation Engineer
nzuniga@anl.gov

Problem owner:

Dr. Peiheng Li from Norfolk Southern Corporation