A large part of freight transport movements are part of a multimodal transport chain, in particular for port-related containerized transport flows. Because data of multimodal transports are unavailable it is challenging to develop a multimodal transport chain models. This paper describes the development of a new module for multimodal transport chains for modelling container transport within the Dutch strategic freight transport model “BasGoed”. The choice model distinguishes unimodal, bi-modal or tri-modal transport chains, depending on whether the transport chain is port-related. A direct road chain is available between each production and consumption combination; direct barge or rail transport is only available between seaports. A route enumeration module generates a choice set for each observed uni- or multimodal container transport. Since no directly observed PC data are available, a synthetic dataset was constructed with container flows between locations of production and consumption, using uni-modal observed transport data. Main assumption is that each container transported by rail or barge requires a road leg at the side of destination and/or origin, to complete the multimodal transport chain. Discrete choice models were estimated with different model structures. The best choice model that was found was a multinomial logit model, segmented by port dependency. The results show that a choice model can be estimated with significant parameters, and with plausible model sensitivities.@en

Strategic freight transport models can be used for a quantitative analysis of long term forecasts. This paper discusses an analysis of the bandwidth of freight transport forecasts for The Netherlands with the strategic freight transport model ‘BasGoed’. This model was developed over the past years as a basic model, satisfying the needs of policy making, based on proven knowledge and available transport data. Starting point for the analysis are the long-term scenarios for The Netherlands developed recently by CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis and PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (WLO scenarios: Future outlook on welfare, prosperity and the human environment). The scenarios describe two base cases: The High and Low scenario. Both scenarios include a consistent set of assumptions on economic development (domestic growth by industry sector and international trade), infrastructure development, fuel prices, and logistic efficiency. The bandwidth of freight forecasts is further explored in five distinctive sensitivity analyses: different development in fuel prices, energy markets, CO2-pricing, dematerialization and modal shift in the port of Rotterdam. The sensitivity analysis provides more insight in the level of importance of each scenario assumption and it can be useful in estimating a bandwidth for freight transport demand. This is valuable in providing insight in the robustness of the freight transport forecasts for policy studies.@en