Impact and relevance of transit disturbances on planning in intermodal container networks

Abstract

An intermodal container transportation network is being developed between Rotterdam and several inland terminals in North West Europe: the European Gateway Services network. This network is developed and operated by the sea terminals of Europe Container Terminals (ECT). To use this network cost-efficiently, centralised planning by the sea terminal of the container transportation is required. For adequate planning it is important to adapt to occurring disturbances. In this paper, a new mathematical model is proposed: the Linear Container Allocation model with Time-restrictions (LCAT). This model is used for determining the influence of three main types of transit disturbances on the network performance: early departure, late departure, and cancellation of inland services. The influence of a disturbance is measured in two ways. The impact measures the additional cost incurred by an updated planning in case of a disturbance. The relevance measures the cost difference between a fully updated and a locally updated plan. With the results of the analysis, key service properties of disturbed services that result in a high impact or high relevance can be determined. Based on this, the network operator can select focus areas to prevent disturbances with high impact and to improve the planning updates in case of disturbances with high relevance. In a case study of the EGS network, the impact and relevance of transit disturbances on all network services are assessed.