Abstract
In this paper, the potential hinterland of the new container terminal of the port of Leghorn (Livorno in Italian) is studied. The study actually analyses the competitiveness of major European ports with respect to some of the most contestable regions in Europe. Travel time and monetary costs of railway paths, connecting ports to their hinterland, have been determined. The rail network of a large part of Europe was modelled using a graph. To each link, which represents a portion of the rail line, a cost function is associated. The travel time on the link is determined from the average speed, which has been determined from the maximum speed via formulae obtained through linear regression. The few cost functions that exist in current literature for the computation of the cost of a rail link are not detailed enough. Therefore, a new cost function has been developed. All cost components were determined in detail: the staff cost, the amortisation, maintenance, and insurance costs of locomotives and wagons, the cost of the usage of rail track, the traction cost. The traction cost was calculated in detail from all resistances to motion. Moreover, for each rail link, the number of locomotives needed to operate the train and the maximum towable weight were determined. The monetary value of time in freight transport registers a high variability; therefore, three different optimisations of the paths—by travel times, monetary costs, and generalised costs—between each origin–destination pair were carried out. The rates of competitiveness of the ports with respect to the examined European contestable regions were analysed.
Highlights
The hinterland of a port is defined as the area of the port through which the greater part of the trade passes (Notteboom and Rodrigue [1])
We considered the cost of transporting Intermodal Transport Units (ITUs), which are 20 or 40 feet maritime containers
For the destinations located in the north-western part of the Padan Plain, namely Busto Arsizio–Gallarate, Milan Segrate/Smistamento, Turin, and Novara, the lowest travel times, monetary costs, and generalised costs are represented by Genoa
Summary
The hinterland of a port is defined as the area of the port through which the greater part of the trade passes (Notteboom and Rodrigue [1]). The potential hinterland (competition margin) of the new container terminal of Leghorn (the Italian city and port of Livorno) is analysed. We address a European problem: we determine the travel time and monetary costs to reach some destinations among the most contestable regions in Europe, from the European ports that are in the most competitive positions to serve these destinations.
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