The market trends and consequential competitive tactics analysis of rail container transport

Rail container transport is a tache of intermodal transport chain and faces the fringed conjuncture. Through the market analysis of container transport, the paper points out that rail container transport should emphasize particularly on the mode competition of lines in the terminal to terminal market and on the join competition of nodes in the terminal to port or port to terminal market. In the first market, rail container transport can exert its cost and environmental advantage relatived to road transport and its time and geographical advantage relatived to freshwater transport. in the second market, rail container transport should promote the harmony in nodes from the hardware, capacity matching of infrastructure and share of conveyance, and software, the guarantee of technical operation and organizational institution. Based on the market analysis, the paper gives rail container transport some pertinent competitive tactics in different markets.