Long-Distance, Multimodal Freight in a Continental Transportation Model

This paper proposes a model of long-distance freight traffic that is suitable for transportation models covering very large areas. Three challenges are discussed in turn. First, the geographic distribution of trips not only depends on locations of production and consumption, but also on the choice between alternative logistic distribution chains and the locations of intermediate distribution centers. Second, any stage of the distribution chain may combine several modes into a multi-leg transport. Third, the large scale of the model leads to large zones, implying a significant share of intrazonal traffic. The proposed approach adapts the four-stage model by generalizing destination choice into a distribution channel model and by introducing a mode sequence choice model for multimodal transport. A simplified distance band model is applied to intrazonal traffic.