Analytical approaches to planning intermodal transportation systems for regular and hazmat freight

The world container transportation industry has grown significantly over the past few decades. Large numbers of containers are transported everyday over long distances via a single or combinations of different modes of transportation (road, rail, water and air). Many of these containers contain hazardous materials (hazmat) whose transportation is regulated by governments due to the related risks. In contrast to other areas of transportation, operations-research-based models for intermodal transportation of containers, specifically hazmat ones, is still a young domain. The purpose of the thesis is to provide analytical approaches to planning intermodal transportation for regular and hazmat freights. Planning of intermodal transportation can be addressed at the strategic, tactical or operational level. In this regard, this thesis contributes to the current literature in the following three ways. First, at the operational level, we study crane scheduling at an intermodal terminal, such that the unloading of inbound vessels and the loading of outbound vehicles could be completed in minimum weighted time. The approach calls for a multi-processor multi-stage scheduling methodology, where each crane has availability time windows. Second, at the tactical level, we propose a routing framework for transportation of hazmat and regular containers in a congested network to minimize two objectives: total cost and total risk. The model considers congestion as a source of exposure and makes a trade-off between congestion exposures and capacity costs. Third, at the strategic level, we study the regulation of intermodal transportation for hazardous materials. A bi-level network design model and a bi-level bi-objective toll-setting policy model, which consider government and carrier at two levels of administration, are proposed to mitigate the transportation risk. The thesis concludes with comprehensive remarks. We summarize the contributions of this thesis, show the overall results obtained, and present the possible directions that this research may take in the future