IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/riskan/v34y2014i1p168-186.html

Transport Mode Selection for Toxic Gases: Rail or Road?

Author

Listed:
  • Morteza Bagheri
  • Manish Verma
  • Vedat Verter

Abstract

A significant majority of hazardous materials (hazmat) shipments are moved via the highway and railroad networks, wherein the latter mode is generally preferred for long distances. Although the characteristics of highway transportation make trucks the most dominant surface transportation mode, should it be preferred for hazmat whose accidental release can cause catastrophic consequences? We answer this question by first developing a novel and comprehensive assessment methodology—which incorporates the sequence of events leading to hazmat release from the derailed railcars and the resulting consequence—to measure rail transport risk, and second making use of the proposed assessment methodology to analyze hazmat transport risk resulting from meeting the demand for chlorine and ammonia in six distinct corridors in North America. We demonstrate that rail transport will reduce risk, irrespective of the risk measure and the transport corridor, and that every attempt must be made to use railroads to transport these shipments.

Suggested Citation

  • Morteza Bagheri & Manish Verma & Vedat Verter, 2014. "Transport Mode Selection for Toxic Gases: Rail or Road?," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 34(1), pages 168-186, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:riskan:v:34:y:2014:i:1:p:168-186
    DOI: 10.1111/risa.12063
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.12063
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/risa.12063?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. Charles ReVelle & Jared Cohon & Donald Shobrys, 1991. "Simultaneous Siting and Routing in the Disposal of Hazardous Wastes," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(2), pages 138-145, May.
    2. Mazzarotta, Barbara, 2002. "Risk reduction when transporting dangerous goods: road or rail?," Risk, Decision and Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(1), pages 45-56, April.
    3. Erhan Erkut & Vedat Verter, 1998. "Modeling of Transport Risk for Hazardous Materials," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 46(5), pages 625-642, October.
    4. Manish Verma & Vedat Verter & Michel Gendreau, 2011. "A Tactical Planning Model for Railroad Transportation of Dangerous Goods," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 45(2), pages 163-174, May.
    5. Verma, Manish & Verter, Vedat, 2010. "A lead-time based approach for planning rail-truck intermodal transportation of dangerous goods," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 202(3), pages 696-706, May.
    6. Rajan Batta & Samuel S. Chiu, 1988. "Optimal Obnoxious Paths on a Network: Transportation of Hazardous Materials," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 36(1), pages 84-92, February.
    7. Erhan Erkut & Vedat Verter, 1995. "A Framework for Hazardous Materials Transport Risk Assessment," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(5), pages 589-601, October.
    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. Xiaoyan Jia & Ruichun He & Chunmin Zhang & Huo Chai, 2018. "A Bi-Level Programming Model of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Transportation Operation for Urban Road Network by Period-Security," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-20, December.
    2. Jabbarzadeh, Armin & Azad, Nader & Verma, Manish, 2020. "An optimization approach to planning rail hazmat shipments in the presence of random disruptions," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    3. Iranitalab, Amirfarrokh & Khattak, Aemal, 2020. "Probabilistic classification of hazardous materials release events in train incidents and cargo tank truck crashes," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    4. Ditta, A. & Figueroa, O. & Galindo, G. & Yie-Pinedo, R., 2019. "A review on research in transportation of hazardous materials," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    5. Fang, Kan & Fu, Enyuan & Huang, Dian & Ke, Ginger Y. & Verma, Manish, 2025. "A value-at-risk based approach to the routing problem of multi-hazmat railcars," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 320(1), pages 132-145.
    6. Guo, Jian & Ma, Kaijiang & Ren, Haoxuan, 2025. "Topological analysis of risks in hazardous materials transportation systems using fitness landscape theory and association rules mining," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 264(PB).
    7. Bhavsar, Nishit & Verma, Manish, 2022. "A subsidy policy to managing hazmat risk in railroad transportation network," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 300(2), pages 633-646.

    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. Verma, Manish & Verter, Vedat & Zufferey, Nicolas, 2012. "A bi-objective model for planning and managing rail-truck intermodal transportation of hazardous materials," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 132-149.
    2. Fang, Kan & Ke, Ginger Y. & Verma, Manish, 2017. "A routing and scheduling approach to rail transportation of hazardous materials with demand due dates," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 261(1), pages 154-168.
    3. Ginger Y. Ke, 2022. "Managing rail-truck intermodal transportation for hazardous materials with random yard disruptions," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 309(2), pages 457-483, February.
    4. Mohri, Seyed Sina & Mohammadi, Mehrdad & Gendreau, Michel & Pirayesh, Amir & Ghasemaghaei, Ali & Salehi, Vahid, 2022. "Hazardous material transportation problems: A comprehensive overview of models and solution approaches," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 302(1), pages 1-38.
    5. Vaezi Ali & Verma Manish, 2021. "Exploring an Infrastructure Investment Methodology to Risk Mitigation from Rail Hazardous Materials Shipments," Logistics, Supply Chain, Sustainability and Global Challenges, Sciendo, vol. 12(1), pages 1-16, December.
    6. Assadipour, Ghazal & Ke, Ginger Y. & Verma, Manish, 2015. "Planning and managing intermodal transportation of hazardous materials with capacity selection and congestion," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 45-57.
    7. Fontaine, Pirmin & Crainic, Teodor Gabriel & Gendreau, Michel & Minner, Stefan, 2020. "Population-based risk equilibration for the multimode hazmat transport network design problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 284(1), pages 188-200.
    8. Zajac, Sandra & Huber, Sandra, 2021. "Objectives and methods in multi-objective routing problems: a survey and classification scheme," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 290(1), pages 1-25.
    9. Zhao, Jiahong & Ke, Ginger Y., 2017. "Incorporating inventory risks in location-routing models for explosive waste management," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 123-136.
    10. Kumar, Anand & Roy, Debjit & Verter, Vedat & Sharma, Dheeraj, 2018. "Integrated fleet mix and routing decision for hazmat transportation: A developing country perspective," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 264(1), pages 225-238.
    11. Zhang, Lukai & Feng, Xuesong & Chen, Dalin & Zhu, Nan & Liu, Yi, 2019. "Designing a hazardous materials transportation network by a bi-level programming based on toll policies," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 534(C).
    12. Liping Liu & Jiaming Li & Lei Zhou & Tijun Fan & Shuxia Li, 2021. "Research on Route Optimization of Hazardous Materials Transportation Considering Risk Equity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-19, August.
    13. Jabbarzadeh, Armin & Azad, Nader & Verma, Manish, 2020. "An optimization approach to planning rail hazmat shipments in the presence of random disruptions," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    14. Bahar Y. Kara & Vedat Verter, 2004. "Designing a Road Network for Hazardous Materials Transportation," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 38(2), pages 188-196, May.
    15. Vedat Verter & Bahar Y. Kara, 2008. "A Path-Based Approach for Hazmat Transport Network Design," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(1), pages 29-40, January.
    16. Yingying Kang & Rajan Batta & Changhyun Kwon, 2014. "Value-at-Risk model for hazardous material transportation," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 222(1), pages 361-387, November.
    17. Rongrong Li & Yee Leung, 2011. "Multi-objective route planning for dangerous goods using compromise programming," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 249-271, September.
    18. Renee M. Clark & Mary E. Besterfield‐Sacre, 2009. "A New Approach to Hazardous Materials Transportation Risk Analysis: Decision Modeling to Identify Critical Variables," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(3), pages 344-354, March.
    19. P. Daniel Wright & Matthew J. Liberatore & Robert L. Nydick, 2006. "A Survey of Operations Research Models and Applications in Homeland Security," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 36(6), pages 514-529, December.
    20. Szeto, W.Y. & Farahani, R.Z. & Sumalee, Agachai, 2017. "Link-based multi-class hazmat routing-scheduling problem: A multiple demon approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 261(1), pages 337-354.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:wly:riskan:v:34:y:2014:i:1:p:168-186. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1539-6924 .

    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.