Evaluating the interrelationships among inhibitors to intermodal railroad freight transport in emerging economies: A multi-stakeholder perspective

Aalok Kumar and Ramesh Anbanandam

Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 2020, vol. 132, issue C, 559-581

Abstract: Intermodal railroad (IRR) mode of freight transport has been considered as a sustainable and efficient solution for ensuring the sustainability of the freight transport industry, but the IRR transport adoption faces many challenges in real cases. However, so far, studies considered inhibitors of IRR transport under logistics shippers or forwarders' perspectives. Unfortunately, no existing research has evaluated the interrelationships of IRR freight transport inhibitors in emerging economies, nor in Indian Context. This study aims to give a structural model of IRR freight transport inhibitors interrelationships with a case of the Indian freight industry. The considered stakeholders in the present research are academic researchers, freight shippers, and Indian Railways officials’. The considered research framework presents twenty-two inhibitors, that were selected from the previous literature and experts' input. Then, a blend of grey theory and decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory method (Grey-DEMATEL) was used to identify the causal relationships between the selected inhibitors and the strength of their interrelationships. A Euclidian distance analysis was used to highlight the similarities and differences between stakeholders’ views. All the stakeholders find some common inhibitors such as poor rail freight transport infrastructure, low frequency of freight trains, the poor delivery reliability of rail mode, lack of competition between transport modes, and lack of holistic transportation business model. The unique contribution of present work relies on the fact that no past studies were found, to consider the impact of multiple stakeholders in the intermodal freight business. Moreover, policymakers may take proactive actions to improve the inhibitors of IRR into practices for improving modal balance in emerging economies. Finally, the conclusion and limitations of the present work are highlighted.

Keywords: Intermodal railroad; Freight transportation; Grey theory; DEMATEL; Indian freight industry; Inhibitors; Multi-stakeholders perspectives (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2019.11.023

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