This paper investigates the problem of inter-terminal movements of containers and vehicles within a port area in order to achieve an integrated and effective transport within the port and towards the hinterland. Containers from different port terminals are first moved to a rail yard and then delivered to the hinterland by rail. To provide insights for stakeholders such as port authority and terminal operators into tactical planning problems, e.g., the coordination between terminals, railway timetable and train sizes, this paper proposes an optimization model describing the movement of containers and various vehicles between and inside terminals. The model aims at improving the container delivery from container terminals to the hinterland considering both railway hinterland transport and terminal handling operations. A network inspired by a real-life port area and its hinterland is used as a test case to test different components, i.e., inter-terminal transport connections, train formation, railway timetable. A rolling horizon framework is used to improve the computation efficiency in large transport demand cases. The result of the optimization helps in identifying the most promising features, namely, that more connections between terminals and a flexible outbound railway timetable could contribute to improving the integrated container transport performance.

中文翻译：

---

终端间运输和腹地铁路运输的整合

本文研究了集装箱和车辆在港口区域内的终端间移动问题，以实现港口内向内陆地区的一体化有效运输。来自不同港口码头的集装箱首先被移至铁路堆场，然后通过铁路运送至腹地。为了为诸如港口管理局和码头运营商之类的利益相关者提供战术规划问题（例如码头之间的协调，铁路时刻表和火车规模）的见解，本文提出了一种优化模型，描述了集装箱和各种车辆在码头之间和内部的移动。该模型旨在同时考虑铁路腹地运输和码头装卸操作，以改善从集装箱码头到腹地的集装箱运输。受现实港口区域及其腹地启发的网络被用作测试不同组件的测试案例，例如，终端之间的运输连接，列车编组，铁路时刻表。在大的运输需求情况下，使用滚动视野框架来提高计算效率。优化的结果有助于确定最有前途的功能，即码头之间的更多连接和灵活的出站铁路时刻表可有助于提高综合集装箱运输性能。