A bi‐objective model for planning and managing rail‐truck intermodal transportation of hazardous materials

We propose a bi‐objective optimization framework for routing rail‐truck intermodal shipments with hazardous materials, when shippers and receivers have access to alternate intermodal terminals. A tabu‐search based solution methodology is developed, which together with the optimization framework is applied to realistic size problem instances to gain managerial insights. Our analysis indicates that drayage accounts for a significant portion of transport risk and that it can be reduced by scheduling direct and faster trains; and, that the mix of intermodal trains depends on the interest of the decision‐makers, where the resulting traffic can facilitate planning emergency response systems.