Feeder Service Research Articles

Port connectivity and competition among container ports in Southeast Asia based on Social Network Analysis and TOPSIS

ABSTRACT The evolution of the single-hub container system in Southeast Asia into a multi-hub system, with several emerging container ports serving deep-sea container vessels and forming their feeder service network, may result in intense competition in the region and a transformation in the ports’ roles. Thus, major ports in the region have sought to enhance their competitiveness by offering improved cargo handling capabilities, well-developed infrastructure, and modernised facilities as well as increased service coverage and connectivity to more countries both directly and indirectly. Several major container ports in the area have taken full advantage of competitiveness to become new hub-ports in the area. To understand the dynamics of competition in this rapidly developing region more clearly, this paper presents an evaluation of connectivity of major ports. In addition, the competitiveness of the top ten Southeast Asian container ports is evaluated using the TOPSIS method and K-mean cluster analysis. The results indicate that the top ten ports are categorised into three groups, and while Singapore (Group 1) takes the most advantage of its connectivity, ports in Groups 2 and 3 may be able to enhance competitiveness by developing cargo handling facilities and infrastructure.

Quantitative Assessment of the Newly MRT System from the Rider’s Perspectives

New rail systems developed in many cities have received significant attention from public transportation researchers globally and regionally. One such system is the Mass Rapid Transit system in Klang Valley, Malaysia. The quality of services’ perception has been captured through the questionnaire survey. Preliminary analysis showed that passengers were satisfied and indicated a great willingness to repeat usage. Likewise, dissatisfaction was only expressed on the feeder bus system services to and from the rail stations. This research explains the rationales for the disproportionately high satisfaction levels and betterment of the support infrastructure, including the feeder services. Keywords: high satisfaction, passengers, public transport, rail system eISSN: 2398-4287© 2021. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians/Africans/Arabians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v6i16.2602

Pakistanandrsquo;s Gawadar Port: Benefits to Pakistan and China and its economic viability

Pakistan is located at the center of the Indian Ocean, making it a coastal state. It executes 95 percent of its trade through blue, via its ports in Karachi and Gwadar. Gwadar Port is the mega project of ongoing developmental projects in Balochistan which is shaping the economy of the World. The port is creating opportunities and possibilities for promoting regional and international shipping and it will resuscitate trade links between China and CARs being the closest route to warm waters. Gwadar Port has a vast region to influence; stretching up to several breakaway states of the former Soviet Union in the north, to Iran, the Gulf, the Middle East, and East Africa in the west, to India and Sri Lanka in the south. Moreover, this deep port is serving the Gulf and East African ports with fast feeder services. It has a deep-water sea complementary to Karachi and Bin Qasim ports for enhancing cargo shipments and therefore it will be a mother port for Asia in the coming years. It is argued that Gwadar Port has enormous potential to benefit China and Pakistan and also have the potential for uplifting Pakistan’s economy.

Reducing sulfur and nitrogen emissions in shipping economically

The abatement technology choices are complicated by the growing ban on open-loop scrubbers, the dawn of nitrogen emission control areas (NECAs) and the current drop of fuel prices. This paper develops a model to select the optimal technology choice that meets both sulfur limits and Tier III nitrogen limits, and applies it to three feeder services. The results show that the most economic choice is installing exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) with or without scrubbers, depending on different fuel prices and characteristics of ships and shipping services. Scrubber installation is more suitable for a new ship or the one with remaining lifespan equaling the lifespan of scrubbers. However, installing EGR without scrubbers is recommended for risk-averse shipowners as it is always optimal or nearly optimal. The paper also indicates that expanding the ban on open-loop scrubbers within territorial water areas only slightly impacts the technology choices for many feeder services.

Research on feeder network design: a case study of feeder service for the port of Kotka

By exemplifying the feeder service for the port of Kotka, this study proposed a multi-objective optimization model for feeder network design. Innovative for difference from the single-objective evaluation system, the objective of feeder network design was proposed to include single allocation cost, intra-Europe cargo revenue, equipment balance, sailing cycle, allocation utilization, service route competitiveness, and stability. A three-stage control system was presented, and numerical experiment based on container liner’s real life data was conducted to verify the mathematical model and the control system. The numerical experiment revealed that the three-stage control system is effective and practical, and the research ideas had been applicable with satisfactory effect.

A simulation optimization method for deep-sea vessel berth planning and feeder arrival scheduling at a container port

Vessels served by a container port can usually be classified into two types: deep-sea vessels and feeders. While the arrival times and service times of deep-sea vessels are known to the port operator when berth plans are being devised, the service times of feeders are usually uncertain due to lack of data interchange between the port operator and the feeder operators. The uncertainty of feeder service times can incur long waiting lines and severe port congestion if the service plans for deep-sea vessels and feeders are poorly devised. This paper studies the problem of how to allocate berths to deep-sea vessels and schedule arrivals of feeders for congestion mitigation at a container port where the number of feeders to be served is significantly larger than the number of deep-sea vessels, and where the service times of feeders are uncertain. We develop a stochastic optimization model that determines the berth plans of deep-sea vessels and arrival schedules of feeders, so as to minimize the departure delays of deep-sea vessels and schedule displacements of feeders. The model controls port congestion through restricting the expected queue length of feeders. We develop a three-phase simulation optimization method to solve this problem. Our method comprises a global phase, a local phase, and a clean-up phase, where the simulation budget is wisely allocated to the solutions explored in different phases so that a locally optimal solution can be identified with a reasonable amount of computation effort. We evaluate the performance of the simulation optimization method using test instances generated based on the operational data of a container port in Shanghai.

Assessing the effects of DER on voltages using a smart meter-driven three-phase LV feeder model

The increasing number of residential distributed energy resources (DER) is driving the need for distribution companies to routinely assess potential voltage violations due to excessive power injections. However, this task can be quite challenging in low voltage (LV) feeders due to the limited availability of modeling data. To this end, this work proposes a practical approach to assess the effects of DER on voltages by exploiting historical time-series measurements from smart meters and head of the feeder. First, the impedances of three-phase feeders are determined assuming knowledge of feeder topology and service cable parameters. Then, the resulting smart meter-driven model is used to compute voltages due to potential DER injections. The performance of the proposed methodology is assessed using a realistic Australian three-phase LV feeder with 40 single-phase customers. Results show that, while there is some error in the calculated impedances, customer voltages are sufficiently accurate for DER management purposes.

Resurgence of demand responsive transit services – Insights from BRIDJ trials in Inner West of Sydney, Australia

This paper outlines the key insights gained from the Demand Responsive Transit (DRT) operations in Inner West Sydney, since its commencement in July 2018. In the context of Inner West Sydney, DRT plays the role of a feeder service during the morning and evening peak periods, where commuters use these services to directly access train stations serving high frequency train services. During the inter-peak and off-peak periods, DRT services provide connection and coverage functions by acting like the traditional bus services, to provide stop-to-stop services. Considering the flexibility in the role of DRT, if successfully integrated with the existing public transport network, it can unlock broader fixed route network enhancements through resource reallocation to the key trunk routes. While the patronage for DRT services was found to steadily increase since the commencement of the operations, the key barrier for these services to attract further regular patronage remains the relatively higher fares arising due to the lack of Opal benefits such as mode transfer discounts or weekly caps. Therefore, while DRT has great potential to link those in less connected areas with public transport hubs, thus facilitating a modal shift away from private vehicles, they need to be affordable and well regulated.

Analysis of the air cargo transport network using a complex network theory perspective

In this paper, we present a complex network analysis of the air transport network using the air cargo, instead of the passenger, perspective. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work where a global cargo network comprising passenger airlines, full-cargo airlines, and integrators’ capacity was studied. We used estimated yearly cargo capacity between airport pairs as input to the model. After assessing network characteristics of the sub-networks representing different carrier types, the full network was obtained as a super-imposition of the individual sub-networks. The resulting network has both small-world and scale-free characteristics. Its topological properties resulted in a higher flow imbalance and concentration with respect to its passenger counterpart, with a smaller characteristic path length and diameter. This result is consistent with the larger catchment area of cargo airports, which heavily rely on road feeder services for the ground leg. Finally, we showed how different attack strategies result in hubs of hub-and-spoke systems or airports behaving as bridges between communities being attacked first. We believe this work to be of relevance both for academics and for practitioners in an era where, due to the soaring of e-commerce and next day delivery, new players are entering the air cargo business and competition is constantly increasing.

Compatibility-Based Approach for Routing and Scheduling the Demand Responsive Connector

This study concentrates on the routing and scheduling problem of Demand Responsive Connector to build feeder plans for people traveling from and to transit hub. An in-depth analysis on the characteristics of feeder services was implemented to inspire the compatibility-based algorithm design. With the goal of reducing operating cost and passenger inconvenience, the proposed algorithm took several factors critical to the real-word operation into consideration, such as double time window assurance (the time constraints at the beginning and end of passenger travels), the flexibility of feeder plans, and the number of vehicles. Our method was validated on numerical instances of 400, 600, 800 and 1000 passengers. Simulation results show that the compatibility-based algorithm can effectively reduce the number of vehicles with acceptable increase of passengers’ inconvenience, and can improve the algorithm efficiency considerably. In addition, the setting of flexible time window of shutter plan can hold some elasticity for feeder services. Sensitivity analysis was conducted to help service providers evaluate the trade-off between the operation cost and level of service.

Demand-responsive transit systems in areas with low transport demand of “smart city”

The development of modern telecommunications allows the concept of a “smart city” to increase the flexibility of public transportation significantly and, thus, improve population mobility. In this regard, public transportation represents a demand-responsive transit (DRT) system. This system occupies an intermediate position between route systems and taxi services and ensures flexibility in providing on-demand transport services. The article describes the main technologies that can be used in the DRT system, including those with fixed routes (Flexible-Route Segments, Request Stops) and without fixed routes (Demand-Responsive Connector, Feeder Service, Zone Route, Point Deviation). Despite the wide international experience in implementing DRT in practice, there are no clear criteria to determine the conditions, under which it is reasonable to introduce a particular technology of flexible service for passengers. The article systematizes the factors that determine the feasibility of transferring a bus route to the DRT system in particular time intervals and also determines a sequence of actions for the introduction of flexible modes of public transport services. The considered technologies to manage public transportation on demand show that it is possible to combine regular traffic and demand-responsive service, using these modes at different times. Such an approach allows reducing the carrier’s costs while maintaining or even improving the quality of public transportation compared with systems implementing only flexible service modes.

Bridging the gap between weak-demand areas and public transport using an ant-colony simulation-based optimization

This paper presents the first results of an agent-based model aimed at designing feeder bus routes able to cover the gap between public transport coverage and ridership in weak demand areas. The optimized design of feeder bus routes has been approached as a Vehicle Routing Problem applied to passenger transport, using Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) to find the minimum cost paths within a road network. The methodology proposed has been applied to the case of Catania (Italy), where a metro line is being extended to the city centre to peripheral areas. A GIS approach has been used to build the road network, select all potential bus stops, and weight them via accessibility indicators, as a proxy of the potential transport demand. Then, the ACO algorithm has been developed and implemented in NetLogo, a multi-agent programming and modelling environment for simulating complex systems, in order to find an optimal set of feeder bus routes, where the terminal is a given metro station. These routes are chosen to maximize the potential demand of passengers while complying with the constraint of a desired travel time. Different scenarios have been analysed by comparing a set of key performance indicators based on service coverage and ridership. First results highlight the validity of the method to find suitable routes to cover the gap between conventional public transport and weak demand urban areas and provide useful suggestions for the operation and design of a feeder service.

Distribution of passenger costs in fixed versus flexible station-based feeder services

This paper presents a comparative analysis of demand-responsive and fixed-schedule, fixed route operations for a simplified station-based feeder to mass transit scenario. Traffic dynamics, demand-responsive fleet coordination, and the behaviour of individual transit users are represented using a public transit simulation framework. Each operational strategy is simulated for varying levels of demand and two fleet compositions with respect to vehicle capacities and fleet size are compared. The services are evaluated based on resulting passenger waiting times, in-vehicles times and additional waiting time if one is denied boarding a fully occupied vehicle. Results indicate that dividing planned service capacity into larger fleets of smaller vehicles can provide a higher level-of-service to passengers. On an aggregate level, utilizing a fixed operational policy results in shorter and more reliable waiting times for levels of demand where there is slack in service capacity. In scenarios where planned service capacity is sometimes exceeded, the on-demand service provides a more even spatial distribution of passenger waiting times, relative to a fixed service.

Subsidized ridesourcing for the first/last mile: how valuable for whom?

The first/last mile is a long known deterrent to public transportation use, yet difficult to solve with fixed route transit. Many transit agencies are exploring partnerships with ridesourcing companies to offer subsidized feeder services. Ridership, however, has been surprisingly low. We explore two conceptual explanations. First, ridesourcing fares are found to exceed travel time savings for all distances below 1 mile and annual household incomes below USD 30,000 (i.e., the majority of US bus-using households). Subsidies are thus necessary, yet common schemes (flat fees, flat value or percentage discounts) are inequitable as they particularly benefit high-income households (thus miss their main target group). Second, the disutility of the additional transfer (‘transfer penalty’) and wait times exceed travel time savings assuming modest values for all distances below 0.45 miles. Subsidized ridesourcing for the first/last mile is thus not the panacea often portrayed, particularly not for short first/last miles. Where first/last miles are longer, investments in first/last mile services only might miss their purpose as the private car often remains the faster, more convenient and cheaper option. A much more holistic set of policy changes is hence required. Where transit agencies decide to proceed with first/last mile subsidies, they are advised to integrate them into existing fares (offering first/last mile rides for free) as this is the most equitable approach.

Optimal design of transit networks fed by shared bikes

Transit systems are designed in which access and egress can occur via a shared-bike service. Patrons may walk to shared-bike docking stations nearest their origins, and then cycle to their nearest transit stations where they deposit the bikes. The travel pattern is reversed when patrons cycle from their final transit stations on to their destinations. Patrons choose between this option and that of solely walking to or from transit stations. Shared bikes are priced to achieve the system-optimal assignment of the two feeder options.Transit trunk-line networks are laid-out in hybrid fashion, as proposed in Daganzo (2010). Transit lines thus form square grids inside city centers, and radiate outward in the peripheries. As in Daganzo (2010) and other studies, a set of simplifying assumptions are adopted that pertain primarily to the nature of travel demand. These enable the formulation of a parsimonious, continuous model. The model produces designs that minimize total travel costs, and is ideally suited for high-level (i.e., strategic) planning. A similar model is developed for systems in which access or egress to or from transit can occur solely by walking, or by walking and riding fixed-route feeder buses in combination. The shared-bike and feeder-bus models both complement Daganzo's original model in which access and egress occur solely by walking.Comparisons of these feeder options are drawn through numerical analyses. These are performed in parametric fashion by varying city size, travel demand, and economic conditions; and for trunk services that are provided either by ordinary buses, Bus Rapid Transit, or metro rail. Designs are produced for cases in which shared-bike and feeder-bus services are made to fit pre-existing and unchangeable trunk-line networks; and for cases in which trunk and feeder services are optimized jointly.Outcomes reveal that shared-bike feeder systems can often reduce costs over walking alone, with cost savings as high as 7%, even when the shared bikes are made to fit a pre-existing transit network. Shared-biking often outperforms feeder-bus service as well. We further find that the joint optimization of trunk and shared-bike feeder services can reduce costs not only to users, but also to the transit agency that operates these services. Savings to the agency can be used to subsidize shared-bike services. We show that with or without this subsidy, shared-bike systems can always break even when they are suitably priced, and jointly optimized with trunk service.

Impact of ride-pooling on the nature of transit network design

This paper examines the basic design trade-off in six distinctive transit systems, including two state-of-the-art fixed-route systems and four hybrid systems that use ride-pooling as an integrated feeder service. The systems are analyzed using a continuous approximation approach, and the resulting optimal design problem is formulated and solved as a mixed integer program. We find that ride-pooling changes little the fundamental laws inherent in transit design. Specifically, all six systems, despite their seemingly vastly different design features, display the following laws: (1) that the per capita agency cost correlates linearly with the per capita user cost, (2) that both costs are power functions of the demand density with an exponent close to −13 and −0.4 for agency and user costs, respectively, and (3) that the per capita agency cost is not significantly affected by city size but the user cost is. This finding suggests that ride-pooling may have a rather limited impact on the economy of scale in mass transit systems. However, mixing ride-pooling with fixed-route services does promise modest improvements to the overall system efficiency. It also tilts the balance of trade-off considerably in the user’s favor, at the operator’s expense.

Air Cargo Transportation in Poland - Trend Analysis and Forecast

Air freight transportation is the fastest developing branch of shipping services in Poland and Europe likewise. As the economy develops, demand for air freight is on the rise. Because of infrastructure insufficiencies, Polish airports rely on air cargo road feeder services (RFS). The aim of this paper is to analyze air freight transportation in Poland and to forecast air cargo traffic for the Chopin Airport in Warsaw for the years 2018 and 2019 using trend models. The data published by the Polish Civil Aviation Authority for the 2013–2017 period were applied. The analysis shows that thetransport accessibility of the Warsaw Airport significantly affects its overall passenger and cargo traffic. As the forecast suggests, the volume of cargo shipped by air through the Warsaw Airport will assume an upward trend.

Development of an Algorithm for Optimal Demand\xa0Responsive Relocatable Feeder Transit Networks Serving Multiple Trains and Stations

Although demand responsive feeder bus operation is possible with human-driven vehicles, it has not been very popular and is mostly available as a special service because of its high operating costs due to intensive labor costs as well as requirement for advanced real-time information technology and complicated operation. However, once automated vehicles become available, small-sized flexible door-to-door feeder bus operation will become more realistic, so preparing for such automated flexible feeder services is necessary to take advantage of the rapid improvement of automated vehicle technology. Therefore, in this research, an algorithm for optimal flexible feeder bus routing, which considers relocation of buses for multiple stations and trains, was developed using a simulated annealing algorithm for future automated vehicle operation. An example was developed and tested to demonstrate the developed algorithm. The algorithm successfully handled relocation of buses when the optimal bus routings were not feasible using the buses available at certain stations. Furthermore, the developed algorithm limited the maximum degree of circuity for each passenger while minimizing the total cost, including total vehicle operating costs and total passenger in-vehicle travel time costs.

Containerisation in the Baltic Sea Region: Development, Characteristics and Contemporary Organisation

The main focus of the paper is on the container system development in the Baltic Sea Region studying cotemporary changes and organisation, as well as explaining the main driving forces of this situation.
 The Baltic Sea is a transport corridor between Eastern and Western Europe. Over the last decade maritime transport in the Baltic Sea area has changed significantly. The disintegration of the Soviet Union forced Russia to start developing its own Baltic ports and terminals and to find new routes to export its oil and gas. The Baltic ports have welcomed a remarkable growth, especially in oil transportation and containerised flows.
 The geographical configuration of the region naturally places it away from major global shipping lines. This situation is accentuated by the organisation of maritime regular lines, centred in Northern European ports. For this reason, the regional container network is mainly made up of feeder services.

Optimal container ship size: a global cost minimization approach

ABSTRACTCurrently, the best container ship size in a service is determined mainly by the liner operator, considering only the economies of scale of ships. Its external diseconomies to the ports and shippers are usually not considered in the decision-making process, which may reduce the overall efficiency and lead to global nonoptimality. This study incorporates the cost to the shipping companies at the main lines, ports, and feeder services, as well as the external costs to shippers and ports in a hub-and-spoke network, and determines the best ship size and the number of weekly services to minimize the overall costs. The external cost to the shippers in the feeder ports is assumed to be proportional to the feeder cost, and a sensitivity analysis is provided. The maximum container ship size is estimated according to different levels of freight demand. A numerical analysis shows that the optimal size should be smaller than the current biggest container ships in service.