Six principles for operation of the rail part of intermodal rail freight transport systems are described:direct link, corridor, hub-and-spoke, connected hubs, static routes, and dynamic routes. The first part is atheoretical discussion of the characteristics of the transport network designs. The theory is then applied tointermodal freight transport by analysing how each transport network design affects the need for terminalperformance. The discussion includes a classification of existing transfer technologies and an analysis ofhow well developed technologies meet the demands. It is concluded that there is a sufficient supply oftechnologies, but some need to be taken further than the current blueprint phase and prove their viabilityin technical and economic terms.
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