A comparative study on port hinterland intermodal container transport: Shanghai and Rotterdam

World trade liberalization, developments in information technologies and enlargement in ocean shipping transport in the last two decades lead to an increasing demand of hinterland transport, and caused capacity shortage and environmental problems, especially in the metropolitan areas with large ports. Intermodal transport is recognized as an effective way to reduce congestion and pollution, and is promoted in the main export/import regions, such as China, and Europe since the 1990s. Many multi-participant multiobjective projects have been carrying out aiming to shift the cargo flow from unimodal trucking to intermodal transport. These projects mainly focus on infrastructure construction investment, technology development, and regulatory policy implementation. This paper presents up to date insights of intermodal transport development in port of Shanghai, port of Rotterdam and their hinterlands via a comparative study. The paper introduces the recently completed or underway projects carried out in both of the hinterland transport systems. The projects of each port hinterland system are summarized to a package of solutions. The paper concludes with the overall effects of these packages.