Optimisation of trip end service for international container sea-rail intermodal transportation - a case of China-Korea container railway ferry

An innovative transportation mode for exporting containers from Korea to Europe, involving a combination of port-access liner train, Korea-China train ferry, and CR-Express train, is presented with the objective of maximising transportation profits of the intermodal system, A bi-level model is built, in the upper level, the model determines the location and departure frequency of port-access liner train in Korea, as well as the departure frequency and vessel size of Korea-China train ferry, while in the lower level, the model calculates the choice probabilities of the paths taken by the containers and the corresponding link traffics. A survey is conducted, including both RP (revealed preference) and SP (stated preference) surveys on containers' path choices, for calibrating the transport utility function by fusing the RP and SP data. The case study shows that for the port-access train, it is optimal to locate the terminals in Seoul and Busan, and to dispatch 11 and 1 trains per week, respectively.