A lead-time based approach for planning rail–truck intermodal transportation of dangerous goods

The remarkable growth in intermodal transportation over the past two decades has not been matched by a comparable level of academic activity, especially in the context of transporting hazardous materials (hazmats). In this paper, we present a first attempt for the development of an analytical framework for planning rail–truck intermodal transportation of hazmats. A bi-objective optimization model to plan and manage intermodal shipments is developed. To represent the current practice, the routing decisions in the model are driven by the delivery-times specified by the customers. An iterative decomposition based solution methodology which takes advantage of the problem structure is provided. A realistic problem instance based on the intermodal service network in eastern US is solved. This framework is used for developing a number of managerial insights, and for generating elements of the risk-cost frontier.