Research on Railway Freight Market Share Based on the Whole Process of Transport

This paper develops a mathematical model to quantify the market share of given freight transport corridor. By analysing the whole process of door to door freight transport, the generalized cost model of railway and highway is established, respectively. A case study of long-distance transport in China's inland cities is subsequently conducted to explore market share of railway and highway. At last, the sensitivity of influence factors is analysed. We find that the average train speed, waiting time to be loaded, container volume and transport distance can significant affect the railway market share. The railway market share increases as the average train speed, container volume and transport distance increase, while decreases as the time waiting to be loaded increases. When the average trains speed is over 50 km/h, or the time waiting to be loaded is less than 1.5 d, railway market share is over 50%. Moreover, railway is more competitive in high capacity and long-distance freight transport. We also find that the result of single factor's change is limit, while the change of multi-factors can affect the railway market share greatly. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd.