Background
According to the “Green Paper on Urban Mobility”, a strong inter-modal and inter-sectorial passenger and freight integration could improve the overall efficiency of transport. The operational organization of an integrated passenger/freight system may contribute to this single logistics system. The idea of bridging freight and passenger transport is not new, since first academic discussions date back to more than a decade ago. Nowadays, this scheme is partially adopted for specific transport solutions, such as air, ferry and long-distance rail transport. However, it is less common in urban rail and road transport, as well as in non-urban areas. In these contexts, several technical and policy-related issues make this integration difficult and its application in real cases limited.
The interest for the phenomenon has been growing, as confirmed by the increase in the publications during the last five years. However, a preliminary literature analysis made on the documents published in the database “Scopus” reveals mostly the development of conceptual frameworks. Indeed, the interest on simulations, real case studies, and policy-related aspects is still limited.
Significance of topics proposed
This special issue of Transportation Research Part A tries to systematise the different approaches adopted so far in dealing with the issue “integration of passenger and freight transport”. It explores the research opportunities related to the topic from different perspectives, focusing on implications of integrated freight/passenger transport on transport policy and practice. The SI is meant as a reference for the scientific debate about the theme. Papers included in the SI should clarify: (a) the importance of the issue addressed and problem solved, (b) novelty and distinctive features of proposed approaches against published methods, (c) important findings/managerial insights drawn from analytical results, (d) implications for practitioners and policy makers.
Analytical contributions and empirical studies that report significant research contributions on policy and practice are welcomed, covering topics including, but not limited to:
Models and schemes for the integration of passenger and freight transport, including automation;
Behavioural analysis of the willingness to adopt the scheme from users;
Simulation of impacts deriving from the introduction of a new passenger-freight service;
Evaluation of the economic, environmental and social impacts deriving from the adoption of the mixed passenger-freight transport;
Integrated passenger and freight transport and urban mobility planning;
Integration of passenger and freight transport in non-urban contexts;
Innovative solutions and policy aspects related to the topic, deriving from properly focused research and consistent evidence.
Potential market
The cross-cutting approach of this SI is intended to cover different practical and strategic aspects related to passenger and freight transport, as well as their impacts on the society and the environment. The implementation of this approach includes passengers and freight transport providers from urban to rural areas, from short to long distance services. Thus, potential readers are not limited to scholars interested in transportation, supply chain management and/or urban planning, but they also include policy makers and practitioners that seek for innovative solutions to make their transport solutions more efficient and more economically viable in this connected and automated age of transportation. Topics may be approached from any discipline or perspective but must have a clear policy concern or be of interest for practice, and must be based on solid research and good quality data. As a matter that can be tackled effectively by experts from many different fields, we expect possible contributions by transport economists (i.e., innovative business models), transport engineers (i.e., behavioural analyses), operational researchers and applied mathematicians (i.e., routing and scheduling models), environmental economists (i.e., impact quantification and appraisal), computer experts (i.e., simulations and models), urban planners and transport policy makers (i.e., considerations on urban mobility planning), and so on.
Submission Method
Submission process and papers must adhere to the normal author guidelines of Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, which can be found at:
Submitted articles must not have been previously published or currently submitted for journal publication elsewhere. Please follow the submission guidelines which can be found from the journal website https://www.editorialmanager.com/tre/default.aspx
All submissions to the SI should be submitted via the Transportation Research Part A online submission system. When you submit your paper to the SI, please choose article type “Integration passenger-freight” otherwise your submission will be handled as a regular manuscript. Papers submitted to the SI will be subjected to normal thorough double-blind review process. If you are not sure whether your contribution would be appropriate for the Special Issue, we invite you to contact the guest editors for an initial assessment of scope suitability. The option also exists to submit for consideration for a regular issue.
Tentative timeline
Paper submission opens: 1 October 2021
Paper submission closes: 30 April 2022
Referee reports: 31 July 2022
Revisions: 31 October 2022
Referee reports: 31 January 2023
Final manuscripts: 30 April 2023
Publication: Late 2023
Guest editors:
Silvio Nocera (nocera@iuav.it)
Constantinos Antoniou (c.antoniou@tum.de)
Yusak Susilo (yusak.susilo@boku.ac.at)