Multilevel multicriteria design of intermodal transport Freight Center networks

The issue of location of facilities constitutes a structural section of the strategic planning and designing in the domain of business development and industrial optimization problems. The matter is the determination of the number and location of facilities and the identification of their attributes. In order for such problems to come to a feasible solution, several methodologies including the use of algorithms, together with methods involving linear and non - linear programming were introduced. Especially in the case of the location of Freight Centers, the problem becomes even more sophisticated and complex due to its polyparametric and multi-dimensional character, given the fact that the establishment of such units at specific regions has impact not only on the transportation sector, but also on the domains of enterprise and business sustainability, as well as on the socioeconomic development of the wider geographical area. In addition, the creation of an integrated Freight Center network apart from incorporating a group of different individual freight transport facilities, it also constitutes a concept which is still under investigation and is still a great challenge for the decision makers in the domain of freight transportation. tool to support such decisions is needed as the use of special software, although it simplifies and facilitates the process, it often entails the threat that the problem will be detached from reality due to the adoption of various assumptions. Towards this direction, in this paper, a multi level multi criteria evaluation framework to be used in the assessment of candidate locations for the establishment of Freight Centers is introduced. In the context of the proposed framework, based on past experience, all the parameters and key performance indicators that are necessary to be taken into account by the transport planners and the policy makers, as well as their respective significance (weights) in the total evaluation process are incorporated in order to produce a guidebook for future initiatives, but also to provide a tool to evaluate the performance of existing freight transport facilities