Abstract
In this study, we demonstrate the importance of incorporating shippers’ preference heterogeneity into the optimization of the China Railway express network. In particular, a bilevel programming model is established to minimize the total construction cost for the government in the upper level and maximize the shippers’ satisfaction in the lower level. The proposed model considers price, time, reliability, frequency, safety, flexibility, traceability, and emission. Two designs are obtained by applying the model to two scenarios, in which one is of the aggregate shipper group and the other is of the three distinct clusters. Results show that explicitly including heterogeneity in network optimization pays off in terms of the dramatic increase in shippers’ satisfaction and the share of the sustainable railway without generating extra cost for the system. The results of this study could lead to insightful implication for proper network planning for the China Railway express and some useful suggestions on the subsidies of the government.
Highlights
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), announced in 2013, together with the “Vision and Actions on Jointly Building the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road” has provided many opportunities for the trade between China and Europe along with huge benefits for China Railway Express (CRexpress)
This study aims to answer the following three questions: (1) Considering the satisfaction of shippers, what layout plan will the logistics service integrator (LSI) come up with to improve the performance of the logistics service providers (LSPs) and the overall service network of CRexpress?
The CRexpress service network in our paper is denoted by G(N, A), where N represents the set of nodes, while A stands for the set of arcs in the network
Summary
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), announced in 2013, together with the “Vision and Actions on Jointly Building the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road” has provided many opportunities for the trade between China and Europe along with huge benefits for China Railway Express (CRexpress). China has faced many severe environmental issues because freight transportation is the main contributor of emission. 56 cities operate CRexpress lines, reaching 49 cities in 15 countries in Europe. In 2015, the Leading Group Office on the Construction of the Belt and Road issued the Development Plan of China–Europe Freight Train Construction (2016–2020), which confirms the significance of the development of the CRexpress given that it serves as an important carrier and gripper to promote the construction of the “Belt and Road”. One key bottleneck that has to be eased is how to establish an environmental sustainability-oriented coordination mechanism and optimize the overall layout of the CRexpress system logistics service network
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