ORIGINAL PAPER The effect of transhipment costs on the performance of intermodal line-trains So ¨nke Behrends • Jonas Flode ´n Received: 27 October 2011 / Accepted: 2 January 2012 / Published online: 12 January 2012 Ó Springer-Verlag 2012 Abstract Intermodal line-trains with intermediate stops between start and end terminals are regularly advocated by intermodal transport researchers as a means to compete with all-road transport on small volumes and short distance markets. A prerequisite for line-trains are innovative tran- shipment technologies facilitating fast and efficient tran- shipments, which is likely to increase the terminal costs. The major implementation barrier of line-trains is the uncertainty regarding costs of these innovative terminals and their network benefits. The purpose of this article is to analyse the effect of terminal costs on the network per- formance of intermodal line-trains. The paper is based on a case study, which assesses the potential modal share for an intermodal line-train on a corridor in Sweden. The results confirm that in theory intermodal line-trains can provide competitive services on short and medium transport dis- tances in case transhipment costs are kept low. Naturally, lower transhipment costs reduce the production costs, but of even greater importance is the ability to achieve higher load factors, which decreases the door-to-door transport costs per load unit. This opens business opportunities for operators and cost-saving potential for shippers in a market segment, which is dominated by road transport. Keywords Intermodal transport Á Line-train Á Modal shift Á Modelling Á Rail transport Á Transhipment technology 1 Introduction Freight transport demand is closely linked to economic development, and for several decades, there was a close correlation between the growth of freight transport and economic growth [1]. This increase in freight transport demand has mainly been met by road freight, which imposes significant negative impacts on the society, economy and environment. As a response, the EU Com- mission’s 2nd White Paper on a European transport policy [2] emphasized a modal shift from road towards more sustainable modes like rail as a key policy objective. However, despite a series of initiatives aimed at revitaliz- ing rail freight, rail’s modal share of inland freight trans- port in EU-25 continues to decline [1]. Though intermodal rail–road transport (IRRT) has grown in absolute figures in countries that have liberalized their rail transport market [3], this increase has only led to rail being able to maintain its modal share due to the underlying growth in total transport demand. Direct terminal-to-terminal shuttle services are rela- tively easy to operate and provide good transport quality and economy for transport flows over long distances. This production system typically reflects mass production prin- ciples applied to transportation on the basis of economies of scale [4]. As a result, IRRT competes on cost with all- road transport for large flows over long distances, for seaport hinterland flows and for bulk commodities [4]. However, most freight flows are transported over shorter distances and/or are too small to facilitate full trains, lim- iting the market potential of IRRT significantly. According S. Behrends (&) Division of Logistics and Transportation, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden e-mail: sonke.behrends@chalmers.se J. Flode ´n Department of Business Administration, School of Business, Economics and Law, Logistics and Transport Research Group, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden e-mail: jonas.floden@handels.gu.se 123 Logist. Res. (2012) 4:127–136 DOI 10.1007/s12159-012-0066-0