Simulation-based Cost-effectiveness Analysis for Intermodal Transport Networks

The increase in container transport and the restricted capacity of existing port facilities determine a large number of issues, including terminal congestion, delivery delay, and economic loss. This motivates research activities aimed at studying the factors that influence performance and economic profit [1]. Toward this end, one has to rely on a model that represents the reality of container transport well enough to address problems from different points of view by using a suitable decision support tool. The various actors (e.g., terminal operators, terminal managers, shipping companies, forwarders, etc.) play their own roles and try to reach decision and planning goals, with either concurrent or conflicting interest. The main requirements for a decision support tool are wide-range applicability and generality, which allow one to plan a strategy or simply to manage a technical change. The increase in the efficiency of a container terminal by the introduction of new transfer machines (e.g., cranes, stackers or trucks) can be assessed with the support of simulations [2]. Similarly, the potential benefits of using automated vehicles to transfer containers inside a terminal may be analyzed via simulations [3]. Therefore, it is crucial to emulate the operational reality of a complex system like a transport network to predict the effects of changes or improvements in a terminal. A multimodal integrated transport network consists in a set of intermodal nodes connected by modal links (maritime seaway, inland waterway, railway, and roadway) travelled by specialized