A Study of Intermodal Transportation Network Design with Emission Incentives and Mode Transfer Costs

摘要

Intermodal freight transport involves use of multiple modes of transportation (e.g. truck, railcar, barge) to move freight from origin to destination. It provides an economic and efficient means to transport freight in supply chains while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This paper considers the problem of designing an intermodal transportation network consisting of three modes: highway, railway and inland waterway. In particular, we minimize the total cost including transportation cost and time value cost due to transportation lead time while satisfying fixed annual demand for multiple origin-destination pairs. The tradeoff between transportation cost and time value cost associated with lead time is studied. Furthermore, incentives are introduced for environmentally friendly modes, i.e., waterways and railways, to promote the use of intermodal transportation. Sensitivity analyses for different incentive schemes and shippers' value of lead time are performed. Future research includes multi-objective optimization framework for designing an intermodal transportation network, and bi-level optimization models to determine optimal incentive schemes.