The huge demand for containerized cargo and the low market share of rail and inland waterway transport in the hinterland freight system in China are causing severe traffic congestion and pollution. Therefore, this paper focuses on innovative modeling to evaluate the effects of transport policies on the reduction of carbon emissions and the mode shift from road to low-carbon modes in a three-mode port hinterland freight network. The proposed model can capture the main characteristics of the freight system such as mode transfer at inland terminals, transport capacity and processing capacity constraints, flow-dependent link performance functions, and shippers’ perceptual error of generalized transport costs. The model assumes that shippers choose transport route, mode, and inland terminal at the same time in a user equilibrium manner, and that bundles of container flow passing competing ports follow the logit formulation. Computational results based on the freight network in the Yangtze River Economic Belt in China indicate that carbon tax, intermodal transport subsidy, and capacity expansion policies can reduce total carbon emissions and promote mode shift from road transport to rail and inland waterway transport, and policy packages show better network performance compared with a single policy type. It is noted that transport policies sometimes lead to the paradoxical phenomenon. Finally, sensitivity analyses are carried out on parameters of cost, time, carbon emissions, and error to test the robustness of the model.
The high demand for containerized cargo and the low market share of low-carbon transportation modes for hinterland freight systems in China are causing severe traffic congestion and environmental pollution. Dry ports offer an opportunity to reduce carbon emissions, relieve congestion, and expand the hinterland of seaports. Therefore, this paper focuses on the dry port multilevel location problem considering capacity constraints, shippers’ choice behavior, and empty container transportation in a four-mode port-hinterland freight network. A Stackelberg game-theoretical model is built for the government and shippers. In the model, the government determines the number, location, and capacity level of dry ports, and shippers choose seaports and paths according to the constrained nested logit model because of the capacity constraints of nodes and links. To solve the problem, a complete enumeration algorithm and a hybrid genetic algorithm are designed. Numerical experiments in China are performed, and two analyses are conducted on the cost parameters and time parameters. The results indicate that constructing dry ports can decrease carbon emissions and generalized transportation costs, and promote the mode shift from road to railway. However, building a larger number and higher capacity level of dry ports sometimes increases total costs, contrary to expectations. There are also some interesting findings with respect to the effects of costs and time parameters on dry port location results, carbon emissions, modal split, and seaport market share.
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