Operation Efficiency Evaluation of the China-Europe Freight Train Based on Grey Cross-Efficiency DEA

The China-Europe Freight Train (CEFT) serves as an important carrier and platform for international economic cooperation and international trade circulation between China and Europe. Since it worked, its actual operation and development have been affected by many factors, but the level of its actual operating efficiency and the main affecting factors of CEFT have been difficult to find, which has severely limited its sustainable development. Therefore, this paper scientifically selected the operation efficiency evaluation indicator system of CEFT and combined grey system theory, cross-efficiency method, and DEA to construct a new DEA evaluation model based on grey cross-efficiency, which can not only overcome the problem of ignoring the relative importance ratings of the evaluation indicator in the general DEA evaluation model and the traditional cross-efficiency DEA evaluation model but also more accurately evaluate the actual operation efficiency of CEFT. At the same time, based on the actual operating data of CEFT from 2011 to 2018 and the above new evaluation models, the CEFT’s operation efficiency was evaluated and tested by examples, showing that on the one hand, the grey cross-efficiency DEA evaluation model can more accurately evaluate the actual operation efficiency of CEFT than other traditional evaluation models; on the other hand, it is found that the “overseas cities,” “operating lines,” and “entry-exit nodes” are currently the main factors that limit the actual operation efficiency of CEFT and indicating improvement direction for the future efficient and sustainable development of CEFT.