A capacity assessment approach for multi-modal transportation systems

This article focuses upon multi-modal transportation systems (MMTS) and their capacity assessment. To perform this task, a linear programming model (LP) denoted by MMTS_CAP has been developed. This model determines the maximum flow of vehicles and commodities that can be accommodated, over a given time period, on different transportation modes within the MMTS. It chooses how to move commodities between different origin destination pairs (ODP) and facilitates the transfer of commodities across different modes. The proposed model can facilitate a variety of capacity planning and querying activities and provides a mechanism to quickly analyse the effect of structural and parametric changes within MMTS. The model has been applied to several scenarios, including a real life case study. Our numerical testing indicates that it is effective, highly flexible and extendable. Our analysis suggests that the proposed capacity assessment techniques are worthwhile and may help transportation planners build better MMTS.