Railroad Intermodal Transportation; Terminal Location; Railroad Modal Split; Transport Policies
Abstract :
[en] This paper discusses the impact of three freight transport policies aiming to promote
railroad intermodal transport in Europe, and examines the case of Belgium as a testing
ground. These policies consist in subsidizing intermodal transport operations (such as
in Belgium, to stimulate rail transport), internalizing external costs (as recommended by
the European Union in order to foster cleaner modes), and adopting a system
perspective when optimizing the location of inland intermodal terminals. The study
proposes an innovative mixed integer intermodal freight location-allocation model
based on hub-location theory and deals with non-linear transport costs in order to
replicate economies of distance. Our analysis suggests that subsidizing has a
significant impact on the volumes transported by intermodal transport, and, to a lesser
extent, that optimizing terminal location increases the competitiveness of intermodal
transport. On the other hand, according to our assumptions, internalizing external costs
can negatively impact the promotion of intermodality. This finding indicates that
innovative last-mile transports are needed in order to reduce the external impacts of
drayage operations.
Disciplines :
Quantitative methods in economics & management
Author, co-author :
Santos, Bruno F.
Limbourg, Sabine ; Université de Liège - ULiège > HEC-Ecole de gestion : UER > UER Opérations : Logistique
Carreira, Joana Silva
Language :
English
Title :
The impact of transport policies on railroad intermodal freight competitiveness – The case of Belgium
Publication date :
January 2015
Journal title :
Transportation Research. Part D, Transport and Environment
Alumur S., Kara B.Y. Network hub location problems: the state of the art. Eur. J. Oper. Res. 2008, 190(1):1-21. 10.1016/j.ejor.2007.06.008.
Alumur S.A., Kara B.Y., Karasan O.E. Multimodal hub location and hub network design. Omega 2012, 40:927-939. 10.1016/j.omega.2012.02.005.
Arnold P., Peeters D., Thomas I. Modelling a rail/road intermodal transportation system. Transp. Res. E Logist. Transp. Rev. 2004, 40(3):255-270. 10.1016/j.tre.2003.08.005.
Beuthe M., Degrandsart F., Geerts J.-F., Jourquin B. External costs of the Belgian interurban freight traffic: a network analysis of their internalisation. Transp. Res. D 2002, 7:285-301.
Bookbinder J.H., Fox N.S. Intermodal routing of Canada-Mexico shipments under NAFTA. Transp. Res. E Logist. Transp. Rev. 1998, 34(4):289-303. 10.1016/S1366-5545(98)00017-9.
Caris A., Macharis C., Janssens G.K. Planning problems in intermodal freight transport: accomplishments and prospects. Transp. Plan. Technol. 2008, 31(3):277-302. 10.1080/03081060802086397.
Caris A., Macharis C., Janssens G.K. Decision support in intermodal transport: a new research agenda. Comput. Ind. 2013, 64(2):105-112.
Carreira, J., Santos, B.F., & Limbourg, S., 2012. Inland intermodal freight transport modelling. 40th ETC - European Transport Conference, Glasgow, UK, Online publication, 18 p., October 8-10, 2012. Retrieved from . http://abstracts.aetransport.org/paper/index/id/3869/confid/18.
COM, 2011. White paper: roadmap to a single european transport area - Towards a competitive and Resource Efficient Transport System (p. 31). Brussels, Belgium.
Daganzo C.F. Logistics System Analysis 1999, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany, p. 296. fourth ed.
Eurostat, (No date), European Commission, Available at: . http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/table.do?tab=table%26init=1%26language=fr%26pcode=tsdtr220%26plugin=1.
Ernst A.T., Krishnamoorthy M. Exact and heuristic algorithms for the uncapacitated multiple allocation p-hub median problem. Eur. J. Oper. Res. 1998, 104(1):100-112.
Ernst A.T., Krishnamoorthy M. Efficient algorithms for the uncapacitated single allocation p-hub median problem. Locat. Sci. 1996, 4(3):139-154.
Farahani R.Z., Hekmatfar M., Boloori A., Nikbakhsh E. Hub location problems: a review of models, classification, solution techniques, and applications. Comput. Ind. Eng. 2013, 64(4):1096-1109.
Hesse M., Rodrigue J.P. The transport geography of logistics and freight distribution. J. Transp. Geogr. 2004, 12:171-184.
Janic M. Modelling the full costs of an intermodal and road freight transport network. Transp. Res. D Transp. Environ. 2007, 12(1):33-44. 10.1016/j.trd.2006.10.004.
Janic M. An assessment of the performance of the European long intermodal freight trains (LIFTS). Transp. Res. A Policy Pract. 2008, 42(10):1326-1339. 10.1016/j.tra.2008.06.008.
Ishfaq R., Sox C.R. Intermodal logistics: the interplay of financial, operational and service issues. Transp. Res. E Logist. Transp. Rev. 2010, 46(6):926-949. 10.1016/j.tre.2010.02.003.
Ishfaq R., Sox C.R. Hub location-allocation in intermodal logistic networks. Eur. J. Oper. Res. 2011, 210(2):213-230. 10.1016/j.ejor.2010.09.017.
Kreutzberger E. The shipper's perspective on distance and time and the operator (intermodal goods transport) response. Eur. Transp. 2006, 25-26:99-113.
Kreutzberger, E. (2008). The innovation of intermodal rail freight bundling networks in Europe. Concepts, Developments, Performances, TRAIL Thesis Series Nr. T2008/16, Delft, The Netherlands.
Kreutzberger E. Lower cost intermodal rail freight transport bundling networks: Conceptual structuring and identification. Eur. J. Transp. Infrastruct. Res. 2010, 10(2):158-180.
Limbourg S., Jourquin B. Optimal rail-road container terminal locations on the European network. Transp. Res. E Logist. Transp. Rev. 2009, 45(4):551-563. 10.1016/j.tre.2008.12.003.
Limbourg S., Jourquin B. Market area of intermodal rail-road container terminals embedded INA hub-and-spoke network. Papers Reg. Sci. 2010, 89(1):135-154.
Macharis C., Bontekoning Y.M. Opportunities for OR in intermodal freight transport research: a review. Eur. J. Oper. Res. 2004, 153(2004):400-416. 10.1016/S0377-2217(03)00161-9.
Macharis C., Van Hoeck E., Pekin E., Van Lier T. A decision analysis framework for intermodal transport: comparing fuel price increases and the internalisation of external costs. Transp. Res. A 2010, 44(7):550-561.
Notteboom T., Rodrigue J.-P. Port regionalization: towards a new phase in port development. Maritime Policy Manage. 2005, 32(3):297-313.
Racunica I., Wynter L. Optimal location of intermodal freight hubs. Transp. Res. B Methodol. 2005, 39(5):453-477. 10.1016/j.trb.2004.07.001.
Rutten, B.J.C.M., 1995. On medium distance intermodal rail transport: a design method for a road and rail inland terminal network and the Dutch situation of strong inland shipping and road transport modes. Ph.D. thesis, Delft University of Technology, Delft. Retrieved from . http://repository.tudelft.nl/view/ir/uuid:49f9b794-5a59-4d7d-abea-44da79ba9d0f/.
Savy, M., & Aubriot, C., 2005. Intermodal transport in Europe, Conseil National des Transports, Paris.
Pekin, E., Macharis, C., Brussel, V.U., Caris, A., Janssens, G. K., Jourquin, B., 2008. Integrated decision support tool for intermodal freight transport. Nectar Cluster Meeting on Freight Transport and Intermodality, pp. 1-13. Retrieved from . http://hdl.handle.net/1942/8352.
van Duin, R., van Ham, H., 2001. A three-stage modeling approach for the design and organization of intermodal transportation services. In: Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Part 4, October 11-14, 1998, San Diego, CA, USA. doi:10.1109/ICSMC.1998.726723.
Woxenius J. Generic framework for transport network designs: Applications and treatment in intermodal freight transport literature. Transp. Rev. 2007, 27(6):733-749.
