IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jotrge/v33y2013icp162-169.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effects of rail network enhancement on port hinterland container activity: a United Kingdom case study

Author

Listed:
  • Woodburn, Allan

Abstract

Transport infrastructure investment is an important element in the creation of an efficient and sustainable transport sector. Intermodal flows are seen as critical to rail freight’s future success and feature strongly in contemporary transport policy. This paper investigates a practical rail network enhancement scheme from the United Kingdom (UK) designed to achieve a shift of containers from road to rail. The paper’s aim is to determine the effects on rail freight efficiency of a loading gauge increase in April 2011 which allowed 9′ 6″ high containers to be transported on standard wagons on the corridor from the port of Southampton to the West Midlands. The study is based on a “before and after” survey of container train capacity provision and load factors, with the “before” survey taking place in 2007 and the “after” survey in 2012. A consistent approach to data collection in both surveys allows detailed analysis of original survey data to be carried out. It is clear that there have been considerable improvements in both on-train capacity and train loads between 2007 and 2012, and that these improvements have been greatest on routes that have benefited from the gauge enhancement. Rail’s mode share of container throughput at Southampton has increased. There have also been wider benefits to off-corridor locations served from Southampton and elsewhere across the network. Overall, the impacts on rail freight efficiency of the gauge enhancement have been substantial, with efficiency improvements evident even at a time of economic stagnation.

Suggested Citation

  • Woodburn, Allan, 2013. "Effects of rail network enhancement on port hinterland container activity: a United Kingdom case study," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 162-169.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jotrge:v:33:y:2013:i:c:p:162-169
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2013.10.010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096669231300207X
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2013.10.010?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Woxenius, Johan & Bergqvist, Rickard, 2011. "Comparing maritime containers and semi-trailers in the context of hinterland transport by rail," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 680-688.
    2. Frémont, Antoine & Franc, Pierre, 2010. "Hinterland transportation in Europe: Combined transport versus road transport," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 548-556.
    3. Roso, Violeta & Woxenius, Johan & Lumsden, Kenth, 2009. "The dry port concept: connecting container seaports with the hinterland," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 338-345.
    4. Janic, Milan, 2008. "An assessment of the performance of the European long intermodal freight trains (LIFTS)," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 42(10), pages 1326-1339, December.
    5. Lakshmanan, T.R., 2011. "The broader economic consequences of transport infrastructure investments," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 1-12.
    6. Banister, David & Thurstain-Goodwin, Mark, 2011. "Quantification of the non-transport benefits resulting from rail investment," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 212-223.
    7. Antoine Frémont & Pierre Franc, 2010. "Hinterland transportation in Europe: Combined transport versus road transport," Post-Print hal-00542346, HAL.
    8. Preston, John, 2012. "High Speed Rail in Britain: about time or a waste of time?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 308-311.
    9. Rodrigue, Jean-Paul, 2008. "The Thruport concept and transmodal rail freight distribution in North America," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 233-246.
    10. Macharis, C. & Bontekoning, Y. M., 2004. "Opportunities for OR in intermodal freight transport research: A review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 153(2), pages 400-416, March.
    11. Wilmsmeier, Gordon & Monios, Jason & Lambert, Bruce, 2011. "The directional development of intermodal freight corridors in relation to inland terminals," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 19(6), pages 1379-1386.
    12. Kim, Nam Seok & Van Wee, Bert, 2011. "The relative importance of factors that influence the break-even distance of intermodal freight transport systems," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 859-875.
    13. Tsamboulas, Dimitrios & Vrenken, Huub & Lekka, Anna-Maria, 2007. "Assessment of a transport policy potential for intermodal mode shift on a European scale," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 41(8), pages 715-733, October.
    14. Ricci, Andrea & Black, Ian, 2005. "The Social Costs of Intermodal Freight Transport," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 245-285, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Liu, Weichen & Cao, Youhui & Chen, Jianglong & Guo, Jiaying & Liang, Shuangbo, 2023. "Organization of river-sea container transportation in the Yangtze River: Processes and mechanisms," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    2. Weichen Liu & Weixiao Chen & Youhui Cao, 2023. "The Evolution of the Waterfront Utilization and Sustainable Development of the Container Ports in the Yangtze River: A Case Study of the Yangtze River Delta," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-21, March.
    3. Woodburn, Allan, 2017. "The impacts on freight train operational performance of new rail infrastructure to segregate passenger and freight traffic," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 176-185.
    4. Alena Khaslavskaya & Violeta Roso, 2019. "Outcome-Driven Supply Chain Perspective on Dry Ports," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-14, March.
    5. Tareq Abu Aisha & Mustapha Ouhimmou & Marc Paquet, 2020. "Optimization of Container Terminal Layouts in the Seaport—Case of Port of Montreal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-20, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Erica Varese & Danilo Stefano Marigo & Mariarosaria Lombardi, 2020. "Dry Port: A Review on Concept, Classification, Functionalities and Technological Processes," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 4(4), pages 1-16, November.
    2. Marino Lupi & Antonio Pratelli & Federico Campi & Andrea Ceccotti & Alessandro Farina, 2021. "The “Island Formation” within the Hinterland of a Port System: The Case of the Padan Plain in Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-28, April.
    3. Qiu, Xuan & Lam, Jasmine Siu Lee & Huang, George Q., 2015. "A bilevel storage pricing model for outbound containers in a dry port system," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 65-83.
    4. Qian Dai & Jiaqi Yang & Dong Li, 2018. "Modeling a Three-Mode Hybrid Port-Hinterland Freight Intermodal Distribution Network with Environmental Consideration: The Case of the Yangtze River Economic Belt in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-26, August.
    5. Koi Yu Adolf Ng & César Ducruet, 2014. "The changing tides of port geography (1950–2012)," Post-Print halshs-01359160, HAL.
    6. Ralf Elbert & Lowis Seikowsky, 2017. "The influences of behavioral biases, barriers and facilitators on the willingness of forwarders’ decision makers to modal shift from unimodal road freight transport to intermodal road–rail freight tra," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 87(8), pages 1083-1123, November.
    7. Bouchery, Yann & Woxenius, Johan & Fransoo, Jan C., 2020. "Identifying the market areas of port-centric logistics and hinterland intermodal transportation," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 285(2), pages 599-611.
    8. Kumar, Aalok & Anbanandam, Ramesh, 2020. "Evaluating the interrelationships among inhibitors to intermodal railroad freight transport in emerging economies: A multi-stakeholder perspective," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 559-581.
    9. Liu, Weichen & Cao, Youhui & Chen, Jianglong & Guo, Jiaying & Liang, Shuangbo, 2023. "Organization of river-sea container transportation in the Yangtze River: Processes and mechanisms," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    10. Jason Monios & Gordon Wilmsmeier, 2014. "The Impact of Container Type Diversification on Regional British Port Development Strategies," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(5), pages 583-606, September.
    11. Panagiotis Ypsilantis & Rob Zuidwijk, 2019. "Collaborative Fleet Deployment and Routing for Sustainable Transport," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-26, October.
    12. Zheng, Jianfeng & Yang, Dong, 2016. "Hub-and-spoke network design for container shipping along the Yangtze River," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 51-57.
    13. Behrends, Sönke, 2017. "Burden or opportunity for modal shift? – Embracing the urban dimension of intermodal road-rail transport," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 10-16.
    14. Reis, Vasco, 2014. "Analysis of mode choice variables in short-distance intermodal freight transport using an agent-based model," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 100-120.
    15. Chia-Nan Wang & Thanh-Tuan Dang & Tran Quynh Le & Panitan Kewcharoenwong, 2020. "Transportation Optimization Models for Intermodal Networks with Fuzzy Node Capacity, Detour Factor, and Vehicle Utilization Constraints," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 8(12), pages 1-27, November.
    16. Fazi, Stefano & Fransoo, Jan C. & Van Woensel, Tom & Dong, Jing-Xin, 2020. "A variant of the split vehicle routing problem with simultaneous deliveries and pickups for inland container shipping in dry-port based systems," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    17. Snežana Tadić & Milovan Kovač & Mladen Krstić & Violeta Roso & Nikolina Brnjac, 2021. "The Selection of Intermodal Transport System Scenarios in the Function of Southeastern Europe Regional Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-25, May.
    18. Fan Bu & Heather Nachtmann, 2023. "Literature review and comparative analysis of inland waterways transport: “Container on Barge”," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 25(1), pages 140-173, March.
    19. Saeedi, Hamid & Wiegmans, Bart & Behdani, Behzad & Zuidwijk, Rob, 2017. "European intermodal freight transport network: Market structure analysis," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 141-154.
    20. Izabela Kotowska & Marta Mańkowska & Michał Pluciński, 2018. "Inland Shipping to Serve the Hinterland: The Challenge for Seaport Authorities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-17, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jotrge:v:33:y:2013:i:c:p:162-169. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-transport-geography .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.