Modeling Regional Freight Flow Assignment Through Intermodal Terminals

An analytical model is developed to assign regional freight across a multimodal highway and railway network using geographic information systems. As part of the regional planning process, the model is an iterative procedure that assigns multimodal freight traffic to the network to achieve overall network optimum. The procedure integrates optimization programming with traffic assignment, considering the interactions between multimodal and single-mode traffic. The different modes included in the research are all highway, all rail, and rail-highway intermodal. The methodologies and algorithms are developed modularly and designed to be incorporated into any regional planning process and compatible modeling environment. A case study is presented for regional freight traffic assignment across Massachusetts.