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Inland waterway transportation plays a crucial role in Europe's transportation network and economy. It is an efficient and sustainable mode of transportation, with lower emissions and energy consumption than other modes of transportation, such as road and air. However, the services provided by inland waterway transport can be significantly impacted by adverse weather conditions such as heavy rain, strong winds, and flooding. These disruptions can cause delays, cancellations, or even damage to vessels or infrastructure. To improve the system reliability, we propose a set of revenue management based (demand itinerary) rerouting mechanisms for intermodal barge transportation optimisation. Revenue Management policies including several customer categories and fare differentiation are applied. Sequential accept/reject decisions are made based on a probabilistic mixed integer programming model maximising the expected revenue of a carrier. A booking framework is defined over a rolling horizon and capacity allocation/reallocation decisions are made for a set of demands including the current and relevant past and potential future transportation requests. Several (demand) rerouting mechanisms are defined and implemented on different service network configurations. The service network status is regularly updated, in particular with respect to barge capacity variations due to changing water levels. An extensive set of experiments is performed and numerical results are analysed. The study results emphasise the added value but also the need for data availability and information sharing between the different stakeholders of Inland Waterway Transportation systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study introduces a holistic framework for optimising road-rail intermodal hub locations based on real regional freight data and railway station information. The primary objective is to enhance railway transportation capacity, thereby facilitating the development of a low-carbon transport system. Research begins by scrutinising the freight landscape in the region, focusing on transport volume, freight intensity, goods types and average delivery distances. Subsequently, data mining techniques, including DBSCAN clustering and frequent itemset mining, are employed to uncover freight demand hotspots across both spatial and temporal dimensions. Based on these findings, a mathematical model for hub location selection is constructed, along with criteria for goods categories suitable for rail transportation. Ultimately, using the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region as a case study, 12 road-rail intermodal hubs are identified, along with the main cargo types best suited for rail transport within their respective service areas. This transition is expected to result in an annual reduction of 470,000 tons of regional carbon emissions. The proposed method framework provides valuable guidance and practical insights for the optimisation of freight structures in various regions. Furthermore, it aligns with contemporary environmental and sustainability objectives, contributing to the broader goal of establishing low-carbon transport systems.

This paper presents the comprehensive state-of-the-art on the challenges that short sea shipping currently faces across the world. The concept and its relationship with coastal shipping are introduced, followed by a review of the EU policies for short sea shipping and its practical impacts in modal split. A survey of the literature on the strong and weak points of this form of transportation is carried out, aimed at explaining the difficulties in achieving relevant modal shifts from road to sea. The experience with short sea shipping across the world is described and discussed, providing a global perspective. The paper then discusses the main challenges and opportunities in this field, namely decarbonisation, autonomous navigation, and digitalization. Conclusions are drawn on the possible impact of these game changing developments in this segment of the shipping industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a need for the dairy supply chain to improve its environmental performance. Intermodal rail-road transportation can be a way to reduce CO2 emissions. However, despite technological innovations in the realm of cooling technology, which could enable a shift to intermodal transportation, the use of intermodal rail-road in the dairy supply chain is still low. A blueprint is needed to foster the application of intermodal transportation in the sector. Literature provides little guidance in this sense. Therefore, this paper investigates how to ease the shift to intermodal rail-road transportation in the dairy supply chain through multiple case studies, performed at different stages of the supply chain. A set of enablers of the shift is discussed, along with a blueprint for innovative technology, and logistics and business models. The plan takes into account all the actors of the dairy industry, as well as other players, i.e. technology providers, academia and institutions. This paper enriches literature, thanks to its multi-stage research, providing managers with a practical tool to support the shift to intermodal transportation in the dairy industry. The main limitations lay in the choice of the sample, i.e. only Italian companies and no small retailers and farmers have been involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intermodal terminals (IMTs) have significant importance in logistics networks whose development enables the implementation of intermodal transportation technologies and participation in international goods flows. Developing IMT contributes to the greater use of intermodal transportation thus contributing to sustainability. To stimulate stakeholders to participate in such projects, they need to be proven economically sustainable as well. This article analyzes the financial risks of investing into an IMT in Belgrade (Republic of Serbia). The scientific contribution of the article is in being the first to use a stochastic financial evaluation model for assessing the development of an IMT. The article analyzes the financial risk probability over real-world data, considering the stochastic nature of container flow volumes and the prices of logistics services. The risk probability, as an output result of the used simulation model, is derived from the probability distribution of three distinct financial parameters – net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), and the benefit-cost ratio (B/C). The results of the analysis indicate that the development of the IMT is financially justified, with relatively low investment risk.

The China–Singapore International Land–Sea Trade Corridor (C-S-ILSTC) was officially proposed in 2018, under the government-to-government framework of the China–Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity. C-S-ILSTC is expected to play an important role in the international trade and connectivity between Western China and Southeast Asia, where Chongqing serves as the logistics hub in Western China, and Singapore is a transshipment hub for Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region. This paper aims to analyse the newly formed intermodal freight container transport network in the context of C-S-ILSTC and China–Singapore/ASEAN region quantitatively from both supply and demand sides, and investigate C-S-ILSTC's advantages and disadvantages. For the demand side analysis, the results show that the trade volume between China and ASEAN countries is forecasted to consistently increase in recent years, and the most commonly traded cargo types between China and ASEAN have also been identified. For the supply side analysis, we examine the infrastructure and development status of the essential nodes along C-S-ILSTC. In addition, we also compare C-S-ILSTC with the conventional intermodal container transport routes connecting Western China and Southeast Asia, and discuss the development prospect of C-S-ILSTC. The results of this study could provide policy implications for the development of C-S-ILSTC and the cooperation between China and ASEAN region. • Research on the newly formed intermodal freight container transport network • Quantitative analysis from both supply and demand sides • Investigate the advantages and disadvantages of C-S-ILSTC • Discuss the development prospect of C-S-ILSTC • Provide policy implications for C-S-ILSTC development and regional cooperation [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foliated transport networks represent a concept that aims to improve the efficiency of the transport system by combining direct connections and hub and spoke design. In addition to combining these designs, a foliated transport network requires a high level of dynamic planning and control, as well as optimisation of goods and resources between the different network layers. It highlights the advantages of individual transport network designs and minimizes their weaknesses, ultimately leading to better performance of the foliated system than the individual options. The purpose of this paper is to describe the basic models of the freight transport network and the benefits of connecting these models. This survey paper aims to provide an overview of previous research in the field of foliated transport networks and to provide future research guidelines in this field that include the application of this model in intermodal transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted international economics and trade, including cargo transportation. As a result, enhancing the resilience of transport and logistics in the post–COVID-19 era has become a general trend. Multimodal transport, with its advantages of speed, large volume and multiple modes, has increasingly gained attention from countries worldwide. However, multimodal transport logistics is a complex and systematic process. Its smooth flow depends not only on the transport itself, but also on the efficient supervision of customs and other government departments at ports. This study employs the theory and method of a super-network to establish a model of multimodal transport logistics, which includes TIR-based sea–road multimodal transport and customs supervision relationships. Structural and resilience-related characteristics of the super-network are analyzed, and performance parameters of the super-network are proposed. A simulation analysis is conducted, and based on the results, countermeasures to improve the resilience and promote risk management of multimodal transport logistics in the post–COVID-19 era are suggested. The findings of this study provide an exploration of more effective ways to ensure the smoothness of multimodal transport logistics and improve system resilience. The study concludes with theoretical and managerial implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the comprehensive state-of-the-art on the challenges that short sea shipping currently faces across the world. The concept and its relationship with coastal shipping are introduced, followed by a review of the EU policies for short sea shipping and its practical impacts in modal split. A survey of the literature on the strong and weak points of this form of transportation is carried out, aimed at explaining the difficulties in achieving relevant modal shifts from road to sea. The experience with short sea shipping across the world is described and discussed, providing a global perspective. The paper then discusses the main challenges and opportunities in this field, namely decarbonisation, autonomous navigation, and digitalization. Conclusions are drawn on the possible impact of these game changing developments in this segment of the shipping industry.

Efficient planning of freight transportation requires a comprehensive look at wide range of factors in the operation and management of any transportation mode to achieve safe, fast, and environmentally suitable movement of goods. In this regard, a combination of transportation modes offers flexible and environmentally friendly alternatives to transport high volumes of goods over long distances. In order to reflect the advantages of each transportation mode, it is the challenge to develop models and algorithms in Transport Management System software packages. This paper discusses the principles of green logistics required in designing such models and algorithms which truly represent multiple modes and their characteristics. Thus, this research provides a unique practical contribution to green logistics literature by advancing our understanding of the multi-objective planning in intermodal freight transportation. Analysis based on a case study from hinterland intermodal transportation in Europe is therefore intended to make contributions to the literature about the potential benefits from combining economic and environmental criteria in transportation planning. An insight derived from the experiments conducted shows that there is no need to greatly compromise on transportation costs in order to achieve a significant reduction in carbon-related emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]