Intermodal and International Freight Network Modeling

In this Research Paper, the author describes the development and application of a single,
integrated digital representation of a multimodal and transcontinental freight transportation
network. The network was constructed to support the simulation of some Five million origin to
destination freight shipments reported as part of the 1997 United States Commodity Flow
Survey. The procedures described in the paper are for the most part the generic or default
methods used to automate this process.

The CFS uses zip code locations to capture both shipment origin and destination locations, while
city and country of destination as well as US port of exit are also reported for export shipments.
This meant developing a digital network capable of routing freight between some forty-eight
thousand different traffic generators and attractors. Given the voluminous number and variety of
possible shipments generated by the survey, a number of reasonably generic computer programs
had to be developed to accommodate an automated set of shipment distance calculations. These
methods are described below-

1) Intermodal network construction

It includes the process of placing components of intermodal freight shipments within a network
structure, by merging different modal networks into a single, intermodal network.

2) Getting traffic onto the network

It consists of methods to connect shipment origins and destinations to networks, and the need to
evaluate multiple origin as well as multiple destination network access and egress options in
order to select most likely shipment routes.
3) Representing intermodal terminal transfers
To derive suitable intermodal routes from different combinations, and sequences, of single mode
networks requires a network merging to occur. That is called as functional linkages and they are
required at locations where intermodal freight transfers take place. This is accomplished by
modeling the operation of intermodal terminals within a network context. Fig.5 shows two
approaches. The approach shown in the left half of Fig. 5 is termed the bi-modal connections
model, since each intermodal transfer is represented as a single network link between two
different modes of transport.

4) Intermodal route selection methods

A ``good'' route, for CFS purposes, is a route that reproduces the shipper reported mode sequence
and can either be validated using other data sources, or in the absence of such sources can stand
up to some common sense rules associated with the economics of freight movement.
Conclusion
GIS was found to be invaluable for displaying, checking and editing the network, it was also
found to be most e•cient to construct and process shipment routes outside this environment.
Among other benefits this approach allows different mode specifc line haul networks to be
linked together via more than one data representation for transportation terminals, and using
more than one approach to defining local net-work access and egress