Evaluating modal shift policies for inland container transport in Korea: a GIS‐based approach

Intermodal freight transport has recently gained much attention from researchers as well as policy makers for its environmental sustainability in terms of low energy use and low emissions per ton‐kilometre basis compared to truck only transport. This paper presents a framework to develop an intermodal freight transport network based on geographic information system (GIS) for evaluating the effectiveness of potential policies on improving the modal share of rail container transport in South Korea. Modal shift policies evaluated in this paper are nationwide rail subsidy provision, reduction in transhipment time between roads and rail lines, and construction of a new rail facility at Busan Newport. The GIS model allows the analysis of modal competition and congestion effects in the networks due to spatial variation in demand, transport costs, and infrastructure constraints.