The aim of this paper is to consider the topic of pricing decisions in the context of intermodal transport as a subject of significant influence on intermodality’s success and the move towards environment friendly modes to bring about a European sustainable transport system. We review the state of research in intermodal pricing from an Operational Research (OR) perspective as a subject with a vital link to energy consumption and sustainability assessment. In particular, we study freight transport within a revenue-maximizing perspective. Driven by the political incentives to enhance its challenged market position, we direct our discussion to the particular gap in optimization approaches that tackle service prices as explicit tactical decisions from the carriers’ point of view. A suggestion to utilize the bilevel programming framework in the present context is put forward, as well as an account of its widely successful application to similar hierarchical decision schemes. Different approaches to express the shippers’ behaviour—the potential intermodal transport customers—within the lower level problem are proposed, along with the modelling implications of different possible objectives as well as the multimodal network structures.

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The starting point of this article is the weak usage of rail freight in Belgium and Europe, both as a sustainable mode of land transportation in itself as well as a part of the intermodal chain. The results are obtained by transversal research on rail freight transport in Belgium, taking into account the European context. This interdisciplinary research develops a road map for the creation of three integrated scenarios: a best case, medium case and worst case scenario for rail freight development, based on a detailed SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunities, threats) analysis. It includes the most probable future developments for rail freight transport and hinterland connections. These developments are obtained from literature review and discussions with a heterogeneous panel of experts in the fields of (i) optimal corridor and hub development, (ii) macroeconomic impact, (iii) sustainability, (iv) effective market regulation and (v) governance and organization for a well-functioning intermodality. The Delphi approach is used in combination with a survey analysis. Frequency tables and the H-index allow defining a ranking and selection of SWOT elements. The obtained scenarios allow future research to quantify and measure the impact of future developments and decisions towards the Belgian rail freight market.

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