A systematic literature review of the design of intermodal freight transportation networks addressing location-allocation decisions

Abstract

This systematic literature review focuses on planning models jointly addressing location and allocation decisions related to the design of intermodal freight transportation networks. Since this body of literature is evolving quickly, a methodology based on a linked two-stage analysis is proposed. The first stage analyses recent surveys to establish the guidelines and criteria that enable the subsequent systematic review. Then, the review concentrates on analysing contributions to the current state of the art on intermodal freight transportation from two close, yet different research streams: Transportation networks and supply chain networks. Key features identified in the first stage such as: 1) the research problem's characteristics; 2) the intermodal networks design's particularities; 3) proposed solution techniques, among others, are used to classify and analyse the different contributions. The review identifies current trends, emerging topics and some issues that merit being researched.