Perspectives on intermodal transportation

Summary form only given. Intermodal transportation is many things to many people. It is often equated to international, transoceanic container movements. As such, it forms the backbone of the world trade, exhibiting significant continuous growth and resulting in modifications to the structure of maritime and land-based transportation systems, as well as in the increase of the volume and value of intermodal traffic moved by each individual mode. Intermodality is also a a major component of innovative and sustainable systems for urban, City Logistics, and inter-urban, the Physical Internet, transportation, as well as of efficient continental and inter-continental logistics chains. Following a brief overview of intermodal transportation, its many facets, main stakeholders, issues, and challenges, particularly in terms of system evaluation and planning of operations, the talk will focus on the planning of services for City Logistics systems and consolidation-based carriers: selecting services and schedules, accounting for the utilization of expensive assets, addressing uncertainty and environmental concerns. We will discuss modelling and algorithmic challenges and identify research perspectives.