Impact of CR Express and intermodal freight transport competition on China-Europe Route: Emission and welfare implications

Yilin Zhang, Anming Zhang, Kun Wang, Shiyuan Zheng, Hangjun Yang and Junjie Hong

Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 2023, vol. 171, issue C

Abstract: China Railway Express (CR Express) has been fast developed, offering an alternative to transportation of the containerized cargo between China and Europe. This paper examines CO2 emissions and social welfare implications of the intermodal competition between the emerging CR Express and incumbent maritime shipping. An analytical model is developed, which shows that the implications depend in general on the relative emission intensities of the two transport modes on a per-trip basis. The entry of CR Express and the resultant intermodal competition, while likely improving welfare, will increase emissions unless CR Express is sufficiently emission efficient. Such impacts on emissions and welfare are enhanced when there are more CR Express operators, or when there are fewer shipping carriers. The competition among Chinese local governments in supporting their own CR Express services also strengthens the impacts. The analytical model is further calibrated with real market and operational data on the route between China’s Yangtze River Delta and Central Europe. Our numerical simulations show that intermodal competition leads to more emissions unless CR Express can achieve an approximately 90% reduction in emission intensity and that overall welfare is nonetheless improved. Policy and managerial implications are discussed.

Keywords: Intermodal competition; CR Express; Maritime shipping; China-Europe route; Emission; Welfare (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856423000629
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:transa:v:171:y:2023:i:c:s0965856423000629

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
https://shop.elsevie ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2023.103642

Access Statistics for this article

Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice is currently edited by John (J.M.) Rose

More articles in Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().