Hierarchical Multimodal Hub Location With Time Restriction for China Railway (CR) Express Network

Abstract

Known as the Belt and Road Initiative, China Railway(CR) Express is a cross-continent railway container transport mode between China and Europe, and plays an important role for connecting China and Eurasia market to boost the regional economy. In order to balance cargo flow and improve transport efficiency, this paper proposes a hierarchical multimodal hub location problem with time restriction for CR Express network. A mix integer programming is formulated and derived, and some results are concluded based on our observation and investigation on CR Express. The results illustrate the rail hub location in China with different rail hub number input, and the hinterland of every hub is explored as well. The rail hubs tend to cover more regions first and then be spatially agglomerative in the central and western regions of China. Moreover, we find that the city Wulanchabu that is located in Inner Mongolia Province has the largest hinterland range, and that strong competition among hubs exists in central and western of China, especially for Zhengzhou, Xi'an, Chongqing and Chengdu.

Keywords

• China Railway Express
• hierarchical hub location
• mix integer programming
• multimodal transport
• belt and road initiative