Travel times, operating and total costs: comparison between Tuscan trucked air cargo and an environmentally sustainable intermodal freight system

Abstract

This paper on trucked air cargo versus an environmentally-sustainable intermodal freight system is from the proceedings of 14th International Conference on Urban Transport and the Environment in the 21st Century, which was held in Malta in 2008. The authors focus on travel times, operating costs, and total costs, using a case study at the Tuscan Industrial Zones in Italy. They stress that the use of the proposed freight intermodal system can be a good solution only if it is accepted by transport operators. The paper first identifies the Tuscan Industrial Zones (Italy), which are characterized by an important air cargo export, and defines the destination airports, to give a graphic description about ways that they are linked and to determinate current travel times and operating costs. The authors then propose a new intermodal system called “Metrocargo,” which realizes a rapid road-railway modal exchange that evaluate travel times and operating costs based on the regional railway lines that link the demand origin and the destination points. They also quantify the time and monetary values for both trucked air cargo and rail transport.