Research in Transportation Business & Management xxx (xxxx) xxx

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Research in Transportation Business & Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/rtbm

Freight on urban public transportation: A systematic literature review

Ralf Elbert , Johannes Rentschler *
Chair of Management and Logistics, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Hochschulstraße 1, 64289 Darmstadt, Germany

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Public transportation offers a promising opportunity for freight transportation in urban areas. Through the
Urban freight & transportation sharing of infrastructure, vehicles, or even space inside wagons, synergies can be realized which can lead to a
Last mile delivery more efficient and environmentally-friendly transportation of goods in cities. This paper conducts a compre­
Systematic literature review
hensive investigation of the state-of-the-art of freight on public transportation by means of a systematic literature
Logistic
Shared resources
review. We start by giving an overview of the various ways in which freight on public transportation can be
Management realized. Then we analyze the identified references, classified into qualitative and quantitative approaches,
regarding methodology, mode of transportation, shared aspects, underlying network, and utilized data. We find
that freight on urban public transportation is a highly dynamic and diverse research field. Finally, we describe
opportunities and barriers for freight on public transportation and identify the main fields for future research,
among others the further inclusion of external costs and the more frequent application of stochastic and real-time
data.

1. Introduction Commission, 2020). To achieve the climate goals set by policymakers, an

interplay of innovative concepts is necessary.
The proportion of the world's population living in cities has grown One solution to mitigate the negative effects of urban freight traffic
rapidly over the last decades and will continue to do so in the future could be to integrate freight transportation into public transportation. A
(United Nations, 2019). Consequently, urban transportation has increased common situation in cities is that the public passenger transportation
significantly as well. In particular, freight traffic has increased due to the network coexists alongside the freight transportation infrastructure due
widespread use of e-commerce, demand-based delivery concepts, and the to its different characteristics (Do, Nghiem, Nguyen, & Nguyen, 2016). As
synchronization and harmonization of flows (Benjelloun & Crainic, 2008; a result, significant capacities, both in local public transportation and in
Fatnassi, Chaouachi, & Klibi, 2015; Rose, Mollenkopf, Autry, & Bell, transportation vehicles, remain unused (Cheng, Guo, Shi, & Qin, 2018;
2016). Increasing urban traffic brings with it a range of negative effects. Pternea et al., 2018). The success of combining the flow of goods and
The most frequently mentioned negative externalities in the literature are passengers has already been demonstrated on long-haul routes (e.g. belly
congestion, pollution, noise, and accidents (Ghilas, Demir, & van Woensel, freight, Hurtigruten mail ships) (Hurtigruten, 2021; Marinov et al.,
2013; Neghabadi, Evrard Samuel, & Espinouse, 2019; Pternea, Lan, 2013). The idea of combining last-mile freight with passenger trans­
Haghani, & Chin, 2018; Strulak-Wojcikiewicz & Lemke, 2019). Environ­ portation dates back to the last millennium and has been taken up again
mental pollution in urban areas is generally considered to be more critical several times since. In addition, over the last two decades several at­
since population density in urban areas is higher than in other regions, and tempts have been made to integrate freight into light railways in Euro­
therefore potentially more people can be harmed (Strale, 2014). The pean cities (Rien & Roggenkamp, 1995; Robinson & Mortimer, 2004a,
negative environmental impacts entail social and economic costs that have 2004b). Transportation practitioners, questioned through a Delphi study,
risen to alarming levels (Baptista, Melo, & Rolim, 2015). An efficient urban expect that several negative effects can be reduced by carrying goods on
transportation system is therefore essential for the functioning of cities public transportation (Cochrane, Saxe, Roorda, & Shalaby, 2017). In
(European Commission, 2011). Nevertheless, urban transportation is often particular, they assume an improvement in terms of environmental
considered the most inefficient part of the whole supply chain (Lin, Chen, pollution, congestion reduction, and traffic efficiency. Likewise, they
& Kawamura, 2014). The problem has also been recognized by govern­ were able to identify a variety of positive effects for public transportation
ments and appropriate targets have been set for the future (European operators. These range from utilization of unused capacity in off-peak

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: [email protected] (J. Rentschler).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rtbm.2021.100679
Received 29 October 2020; Received in revised form 13 April 2021; Accepted 2 June 2021
2210-5395/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article as: Ralf Elbert, Johannes Rentschler, Research in Transportation Business & Management,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rtbm.2021.100679
R. Elbert and J. Rentschler Research in Transportation Business & Management xxx (xxxx) xxx

hours and higher service frequency, to improved business cases through a The remaining parts of the paper are structured as follows: Section 2
larger customer base, as well as greater network efficiency and opera­ provides an overview of freight on public transportation and delimits the
tional enhancement through the avoidance of split shifts. scope of the review. In Section 3 we describe the methodological
The current COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the situation in e- approach of the systematic literature review. In Section 4 we give a
commerce and for public transportation providers. E-commerce has descriptive overview of the identified references, then we conduct a
grown disproportionately across national borders, leading to an increase content-based analysis of the literature, whereby we differentiate be­
in deliveries (OECD, 2020; United Nations, 2021). In contrast, public tween studies with a qualitative and quantitative approach (RQ1, RQ2).
transportation providers have to contend with stark challenges. Additionally, further fields of research are identified (RQ3). Finally, in
Declining passenger numbers, hygiene regulations and the necessity to Section 5 we summarize the limitations of the review and present a
maintain the network, which is mostly operated by the public sector, conclusion.
have led to high losses (Gutiérrez, Miravet, & Domènech, 2020;
Schwarz, 2020; Tirachini & Cats, 2020; Vitrano, 2021). Freight on 2. Overview of freight on public transportation
public transportation offers the chance to address both challenges. Over
the past few years, interest in freight on public transportation has grown Urban logistics face several challenges concerning economic, ecolog­
steadily. The topic has been approached by researchers from a variety of ical, and social dimensions (e.g. increasing demand for urban freight de­
angles so that a large and diverse body of literature has emerged. liveries, energy consumption, traffic emissions, noise from delivery
Several terms are used for freight transportation on public trans­ vehicles, and increasing congestion in densely populated urban areas).
portation. In addition to the terms freight on transit (FOT), cargo hitching, These challenges have not gone unnoticed in the scientific community and
or passenger-and-package sharing, there are a multitude of other possible over the last two decades, a rich body of literature has emerged. Several
terms (Cochrane et al., 2017; Ji, Zheng, Zhao, Shen, & Du, 2020; Maz­ authors have taken up the challenge to impose some order in the field.
zarino & Rubini, 2019; Pimentel & Alvelos, 2018). Lagorio et al. (2016) present how research on urban logistics has devel­
We define freight on public transportation as the integrated and oped up to 2015. They focus specifically on urban logistics solutions and
organized transportation of passengers and goods within urban areas methods by which these solutions are implemented from a transportation
using a system of vehicles such as buses and trains that operate at regular management, logistics, and operational perspective and provide a broad
times on fixed routes and are used by the public. overview. Neghabadi et al. (2019) provide a comprehensive database
Despite the growing interest, a comprehensive overview of the cur­ based on categorized keywords to identify different aspects of city logis­
rent state of research is missing. General reviews on urban trans­ tics. Freight on public transportation is only mentioned once, so it can be
portation (Lagorio, Pinto, & Golini, 2016; Neghabadi et al., 2019) cover concluded that freight on public transportation is still a relatively young
freight on public transportation only as one aspect and do not expound research area.
on planning models for freight on public transportation in detail. In In more specific reviews, however, freight on public transportation is
order to address this research gap, the objective of the paper at hand is to mentioned more often. Ranieri, Digiesi, Silvestri, and Roccotelli (2018)
provide a comprehensive survey of freight on public transportation. In investigate innovative approaches for last-mile freight and also look into
detail, our aim is to answer three research questions (RQs) by means of a collaborative and cooperative logistics.
systematic literature review. Cleophas, Cottrill, Ehmke, and Tierney (2019) analyze vertical and
The research on freight on public transportation is diverse with horizontal approaches to collaboration in urban transportation. They
various focal points and different subjects of investigation. Some papers classify freight on public transportation as a form of vertical collabo­
investigate narrow topics (e.g. Behiri, Belmokhtar-Berraf, & Chu, 2018) ration. However, they cover freight on public transportation only as one
whereas others envision a whole system for freight on public trans­ aspect of urban transportation besides further aspects such as urban
portation (e.g. Hu, Dong, Hwang, Ren, & Chen, 2020). Since there is no consolidation centers and road pricing, and do not expound planning
systematic analysis of the subject, the first research question is: models in detail, nor do they give a structured analysis. Mourad,
Puchinger, and Chu (2019) survey models and algorithms for opti­
• RQ 1: What are the main research interests for freight on public mizing shared mobility. According to them, shared mobility systems
transportation, how can they be classified and what trends can be can be collapsed into two mainstreams: those where people share rides
observed? and those where parcel transportation and people transportation are
combined. Freight on public transportation falls into the second. In this
Of further importance is the research methodology used in the category, they further consider share-a-ride problems and crowd-
various studies. Here it becomes apparent that extremely different ap­ shipping. Although they consider freight on public transportation to
proaches are pursued in the literature. These range from case studies (e. some extent, they do not focus on its specifics and do not supplement an
g. De Langhe, Meersman, Sys, van de Voorde, & Vanelslander, 2019) to in-depth analysis, as their survey is not systematic.
surveys and Delphi studies (e.g. Cochrane et al., 2017; Kikuta, Ito, Several related research areas share characteristics with freight on
Tomiyama, Yamamoto, & Yamada, 2012) to mathematical modeling public transportation:
and simulation (e.g. Dampier & Marinov, 2015; Fatnassi et al., 2015). An Crowd-shipping can be described as a network of people who are
analysis of the suitability of specific methods for certain topics can yield willing to transport objects on their existing travel activities and so take
interesting findings. Therefore, the second research question is: over activities that are usually performed by a certain agent or company
(Gatta, Marcucci, & Le Pira, 2017). Crowd-shipping has received
• RQ 2: Which main research methodologies are employed and how increasing attention in industry and science in the recent past (Punel,
are they related? Ermagun, & Stathopoulos, 2018). However, crowd-shipping does not
necessarily use existing public transportation and can hardly be described
The final objective is to understand the evolution of the discipline in as a dedicated freight network. Therefore crowd-shipping is only
order to identify the most viable directions for future research. This in­ considered as a related research area. Like crowd-shipping, the trans­
cludes general trends as well as an analysis of the caveats and barriers portation of goods by taxi is classified as an adjacent research area as
that have prevented full implementation to date. Thus, the third research taxis do not operate on fixed timetables. All other means of public
question is: transportation are strictly bound to fixed routes and timetables (Ghilas
et al., 2013; Trentini & Mahléné, 2010). Due to this fact, the modeling of
• RQ 3: Which fields for future research can be derived and what are combined passenger and freight transportation by taxi is different in its
the opportunities and barriers for freight on public transportation? approach, as there are no fixed routes that must be taken into account in

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R. Elbert and J. Rentschler Research in Transportation Business & Management xxx (xxxx) xxx

planning. To model the integrated transportation of passengers and destination. According to the pilot study, transportation by tram is
goods by taxi, the share-a-ride problem was introduced by Li, Krushinsky, possible in principle, but the costs are slightly higher than for delivery by
Reijers, and van Woensel (2014). Another innovative approach is the so- road (Riemann, 2021; Schocke, Schäfer, Höhl, & Gilbert, 2020).
called underground logistics system (ULS) (Dong, Xu, Hwang, Ren, & Zurich: Since 2003, the Cargo Tram has enabled the disposal of
Chen, 2019). These underground systems, which are mostly dedicated to electrical waste and bulky goods in Zurich. A regular timetable provides
freight transportation, can relieve urban logistics by reducing road access to eleven stops where citizens can hand in their electrical or bulky
infrastructure usage. As a result, freight traffic does not have to interact waste free of charge. Several hundred tons of bulky waste are thus
with existing passenger traffic, and public transportation is not used. removed each year, reducing traffic on the roads (Stadt Zürich, 2021).
Additionally, many papers investigate how ULS systems can be con­
structed (Dong, Hu, Yan, Ren, & Zhao, 2018). Therefore, this research 3. Methodology
area is out of scope for the present analysis, except for ULSs which make
use of existing metro systems and investigate the interaction with pas­ To identify the relevant literature, evaluate trends, and detect existing
senger transportation. gaps, a systematic review according to the recommendations of Kitch­
Motraghi and Marinov (2012) distinguish three categories of rail enham and Charters (2007) and Denyer and Tranfield (2009) was con­
transportation: traditional “heavy” railways, metros, and light railways, ducted. The recommendations of Denyer and Tranfield consist of four
such as trams. As the terms metro, light railways, and tram are often core principles, that the review be transparent, inclusive, explanatory,
used interchangeably in the literature, we summarize them under light and heuristic. These four principles translate into five concrete steps.
railways unless a distinction is appropriate. In the past, light railways
have been more popular in urban areas than traditional trains. Gener­ (1) Formulation of research questions and definition of scope: The
ally, heavy rail is mainly used for large quantities of low-value or non- research questions and the scope of the content have been pro­
time-sensitive goods as well as intercity connections (Alessandrini, Fil­ posed in the previous sections. We selected the Web of Science
ippi, Site, & Salucci, 2012). Therefore, we limit our analysis to light database as the article source because Web of Science is one of the
railways. largest peer-reviewed databases for science (Clarivate, 2020).
There are several ways in which freight can share public trans­ The search string is appropriately derived from the research
portation with passengers, with different degrees of integration: questions. For this purpose, the research questions are oper­
ationalized in their individual facets to find the maximum num­
1. Shared track: Freight is transported in a separate vehicle, which only ber of primary studies relating to freight on urban public
shares the infrastructure with public transportation vehicles. This transportation. From this, we derive freight, urban, public, trans­
applies in particular to light railways, where freight is transported in portation, and shared as central keywords. While the first four
separate wagons with no passengers present and an own traction keywords are unambiguous and derive directly from the goal of
unit. It must be ensured that freight vehicles do not interfere with the the study, the keyword “shared” has been added to focus the
timetable of passenger vehicles. Examples for this least integrated search on the integration of freight into public transportation,
kind of shared transportation can be found in Dresden, Frankfurt, or reflecting the different degrees of integration stated in section 2.
Zurich (Marinov et al., 2013). (2) Keyword selection and inclusion criterion: Based on the research
2. Shared vehicle: Freight is transported inside a separate wagon (light questions and the central keywords from step 1, synonyms, ab­
railways) or an attached trailer (e.g. bus). Persons and freight share breviations, and alternative spellings were identified and group­
the same travel route, time, and distance. Dependencies exist in ed, and the list can be found in Table 1, together with the final
particular with regard to loading/unloading and transshipment op­ search string. The final search string was applied to the title,
erations. Examples are provided by Shen, Qiu, Li, and Feng (2015) keywords, and abstract of the web of science core collection. We
and Behiri et al. (2018). started our search in 2007 as in that year the green paper on
3. Shared Wagon: Freight is transported in the same wagon or urban mobility of the European Commission was published (Eu­
compartment as persons. Passengers and freight do not only share ropean Commission, 2007). This document suggests a strong
travel routes, time, and distance, but share space as well. In partic­ inter-modal and inter-sectorial passenger and freight integration,
ular, peak periods of transportation demand for both persons and and sparked the research on freight on public transportation. As a
freight must be taken into account, as the available space must be next step, the inclusion criteria were constructed. They are
split between the two. Furthermore, design and safety considerations summarized in Table 2. We excluded conference papers if the
must be addressed, as done by Kelly and Marinov (2017). authors expanded a similar contribution in a journal article. We

Freight on public transportation has not only been studied in theory. Table 1
First pilot studies, which all belong to the category of shared track, have Selected keywords and final search string for the systematic search.
been conducted so far. These are briefly presented below.
Freight Urban Public Transportation Shared
Amsterdam: In 2007 CityCargo Amsterdam launched the project
CargoTram to reduce the number of trucks in the inner-city by 50% and Cargo City Commute Logistic Collaborative
Delivery Last-mile Metro Combined
reduce pollution by 20%. A pilot project, consisting of two empty cargo
Goods Metropole People Inclusion
trams running on the network for one month, was successful. In 2009 Package Municipal Passenger Incorporate
CityCargo Amsterdam went bankrupt (Arvidsson & Browne, 2013). Parcel Town Rail Integrate
Dresden: From 2001 to 2020, the CarGoTram of DVB Dresden sup­ Shipment Ride Join
Subway Merge
plied the “Transparent Factory” of Volkswagen AG in Dresden city
Tram Mix
center with automotive components just in time. With up to eight rounds Travel Unite
per day, up to 25 truck journeys could be avoided (Dresdner Verkehrs­ Search string
betriebe AG, 2020).
(freight* OR cargo OR delivery OR good* OR package OR parcel OR shipment*)
Frankfurt: In 2019 Hermes, a Courier Express Parcel (CEP) service
AND (urban OR cit* OR “last mile” OR metropol* OR municipal OR town) AND
provider, and the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences conducted a (public OR commute OR metro OR people OR passenger* OR rail OR ride OR
pilot study “LastMileTram” in Frankfurt. From a depot outside the city, subway OR tram OR travel*) AND (transport* OR logistic*) AND (shar* OR
customized transportation boxes were taken by tram to the city center. collaborative OR combin* OR inclusion OR incorporate OR integrat* OR join*
From there they were transported by special e-bikes to their final delivery OR merge* OR mix* OR unite*)

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R. Elbert and J. Rentschler Research in Transportation Business & Management xxx (xxxx) xxx

further excluded white papers and websites from the review of Table 3
theoretical contributions, choosing to focus on peer-reviewed Composition of the corpus.
contributions Qualitative Quantitative Sum
(3) Reading titles and abstracts: Using the previously stated strategy
Journal 16 13 29
more than 1300 papers could be identified. However some of the Conference 6 3 9
papers found are in completely different research areas for Sum 22 16 38
example: health social science or urban planning. Through the
process of reading the title and abstract such publications could
be excluded qualitative, quantitative, and cumulative subcategories. It can be seen
(4) Full-text evaluation: The remaining papers were eligible for full- that, in the early years, the qualitative papers were dominant. Quanti­
text evaluation. In this step, we read all the papers and checked tative papers started to be published in 2015 and had a peak in 2018.
that their content was appropriate before adding them to the This is consistent with the repeatedly expressed wish for more quanti­
corpus. A considerable number of sources based on taxi concepts tative research in the analyzed qualitative papers. In total, it can be
or crowd-sourcing were excluded. Finally, further references observed that there has been a steady stream of new research over the
fulfilling the criteria, that were cited in the papers or publications observed time horizon, confirming the current relevance of the subject.
we considered, were integrated, too. The geographical distribution of the research is shown in Fig. 2. It
(5) Analysis and synthesis of the selected corpus: In total 38 refer­ can be seen that so far only a few countries have participated in research
ences remain for content-based evaluation. In the following sec­ on freight on public transportation. The majority of research has taken
tion, we present the results of the literature review. place in Europe and China. In general, it is industrialized countries
which are particularly involved in this research. These include many
4. Results of the literature review metropolitan areas that are confronted with urban logistics challenges
and therefore have a strong motivation to address them. The United
This survey aims to connect insights from real-world trials, concep­ Kingdom and China are pioneers in research on freight on public
tual designs, and case studies as well as the state of the art of modeling transportation with nine and seven publications each. The United
freight on public transportation mathematically. Accordingly, the corpus Kingdom pursues primarily a qualitative approach, while China, as well
consists of a variety of research papers, which pursue different questions as the Netherlands, focus on quantitative research. Concerning the
and deploy a wide range of methodologies. Table 3 shows the composi­ implementation of the concept in relation to the number of publications
tion of the investigated corpus. The identified references can be divided per country, a correlation can be seen to some extent. With the most
into qualitative and quantitative publications. 22 out of 38 references publications, China is also planning the most ambitious implementation
address freight on public transportation from a qualitative perspective. of the concept with the Beijing New City Center (Hu, Dong, Hwang, Ren,
Most of them (15 out of 22) do so through a case study. The remaining & Chen, 2020). The pilot projects located in German-speaking countries,
studies use simulation, reviews, and interviews. 16 out of 38 references which are mentioned in section 2, are mainly reported by an interna­
investigate the mathematical modeling of freight on public trans­ tional authorship. The Netherlands and the UK lead in terms of pub­
portation and can be classified as quantitative. The problems examined lished papers, but apart from the failed CityCargo-project in Amsterdam,
are diverse and range from vehicle routing over network design to hub no implementations are known. It should be noted that several countries
location. There is a higher share of journal articles in contrast to con­ may have contributed to a paper.
ference papers, partly due to the decision to exclude conference contri­ With regard to the preferred journal of publication, no clear trend
butions that have been adapted into a journal article. can be identified. In total there are 30 different journals or conferences,
In the further part of this section, the structure is as follows. Firstly, whereby Sustainability leads the ranking with three publications.
in Section 4.1 we carry out a descriptive analysis of the selected refer­ Journals, which were selected several times for publications, are shown
ences. Next, the references for each problem category - qualitative in in Fig. 3.
Section 4.2, and quantitative in Section 4.3 - are evaluated with regard
to different characteristics (e.g. type, mode, shared instance). The 4.2. Research with a focus on qualitative methods
quantitative references are further analyzed regarding the model for­
mulations and the solution approach. Afterwards, we compare qualita­ This section reviews qualitative research for freight on public transit.
tive and quantitative approaches. Finally in Section 4.4 we present fields The organization of the review is based on the central problem char­
for future research. acteristics, of which Table 4 gives an overview. Problem characteristics
include the type of qualitative study, the transportation mode used, the
4.1. Descriptive findings type of sharing covered by the study (see Section 2), the data used for a
case study or calculations (if applicable), the complexity of the studied
In the following, a descriptive analysis of the portfolio is conducted network (e.g. single line, multiple lines, with or without transshipment
with a focus on the following aspects: authors, year of publication, between public transportation vehicles), an indicator if a standardized
journal or conference, and country of the publishing research institu­ transportation unit (STU) is used and the way the last mile is covered to
tion. Fig. 1 shows the evolution of the corpus over time, divided into the final destination.

4.2.1. Type of study

Table 2
Paper selection criteria. Most of the references (16 out of 22) choose a case study to analyze
freight on public transportation (e.g. Galkin, Schlosser, Galkina,
Items Description
Hodakova, & Capayova, 2019; Regué & Bristow, 2013). This is mainly
Database Web of Science done by examining concrete projects, both theoretical and realized, for
Language English
a city or a region. Kelly and Marinov (2017) deviate from this by
Time interval 2007–2020
Document Peer-reviewed journal articles or conference papers investigating various innovative designs for the interior of the metro
types carriages with different requirements for space, necessity for frequent
Inclusion - Transportation, economic, management, operations research adaption, and costs. The second and third most used study types are
criteria - Combined transportation of goods and passengers on public simulations (Alessandrini et al., 2012; Dampier & Marinov, 2015; Hu
transportation
et al., 2020; Motraghi & Marinov, 2012; Pernkopf & Gronalt, 2020) and

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R. Elbert and J. Rentschler Research in Transportation Business & Management xxx (xxxx) xxx

8 40

6 30

4 20

2 10

0 0
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
quantave qualitave cumulav

Fig. 1. Development of publications over time.

CHN
UK
NLD
FRA
ITA
CAN
USA
SWE
SGP
JPN
DEU
BEL

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Fig. 2. Publications per country.

Fig. 3. Number of publications per journal.

reviews (Arvidsson & Browne, 2013; De Langhe, 2017; Marinov et al., a lack of data, only purely monetary indicators are considered. In a
2013). Arvidsson and Browne (2013) focus on realized practical pro­ three-round Delphi study Cochrane et al. (2017) interview 34 trans­
jects. In particular, they analyze the reasons for the failure of the Car­ portation experts and conclude that the technical challenges of FOT
goTram project in Amsterdam by interviewing members of the project may be easier to overcome than institutional barriers.
team. De Langhe (2017) identifies the external cost elements related to
freight on public transportation and provides a range of common 4.2.2. Employed mode
external cost values for Belgium. These parameters are crucial since With regard to the considered mode, light railways are dominant (15
many studies emphasize the importance of external costs, but owing to out of 22). This is consistent with the projects realized in practice, as rail-

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 R. Elbert and J. Rentschler
Table 4
Summary of qualitative research.
Reference Type of Study Mode Sharing Data Network STU Last Mile

Alessandrini et al. (2012) Case Study Light Rail Track Rome, Italy Single Line Yes Hybrid vehicles
Simulation
Arvidsson & Browne, 2013 Interviews Light Rail Track N/A N/A N/A Electric vehicles
Review
Arvidsson et al. (2016) Desk Study N/A Other N/A N/A N/A Electric vehicles
Bruzzone et al. (2021) Case Study Boat Vehicle Venice, Italy Network No Electric vehicles
Bus Velenje, Slovenia no transhipment
Cochrane et al. (2017) Delphi Study Light Rail Other Toronto, Canada N/A N/A N/A
Dampier and Marinov (2015) Case Study Light Rail Track Newcastle upon Tyne, UK Single Line Yes Cargo bike,
Simulation Electric vehicles
De Langhe, 2017 Review Light Rail Other Belgium N/A N/A N/A
De Langhe et al., 2019 Case Study Light Rail Track, Vehicle, Wagon Antwerp, Belgium Single Line No (Electric) Cargo bike, LGV, Pick-Up
Galkin et al. (2019) Case Study Light Rail Wagon Bratislava, Slovenia Single Line No N/A
Hu, Dong, Hwang, Ren, & Chen, 2020 Case Study Light Rail Vehicle Beijing, China Network Yes Cargo bikes, Electric vehicles, Pick-Up
Simulation
6

Hu, Dong, Hwang, Ren, Chen, & Chen, 2020 Case Study Light Rail Track Beijing, China Network Yes Electric vehicles, Pick up, Pipeline network
Delphi Study Vehicle
Kelly and Marinov (2017) Case Study Light Rail Track Newcastle upon Tyne, UK Single Line Yes Cargo bikes, Electric vehicles
Wagon
Kikuta et al., 2012 Case Study Light Rail Wagon Sapporo, Japan Single Line No N/A
Marinov et al. (2013) Review Light Rail Other N/A N/A N/A N/A
Mazzarino and Rubini (2019) Case Study Boat Wagon Venice, Italy Network No Pick-Up
Motraghi and Marinov (2012) Case Study Simulation Light Rail Track Newcastle upon Tyne, UK Single Line Yes Pick-Up
Vehicle

Research in Transportation Business & Management xxx (xxxx) xxx

Pernkopf and Gronalt (2020) Case Study Simulation aerial ropeway Track N/A Single Line Yes N/A
Regué and Bristow (2013) Case Study Light Rail Track Barcelona, Spain Network No Pick-Up
no transhipment
Shen et al. (2015) Case Study Bus Vehicle Zhenjiang, China Network Yes Pick-Up
Trentini and Malhene (2012) Case Study N/A Bus La Rochelle, France Single Line No Pick-Up
Van Duin et al. (2019) Case Study Bus Wagon Millingen aan de Rijn, Netherlands Network No Pick-Up
no transhipment
Zhou and Zhang (2020) Desk Study Light Rail Track, Vehicle, Wagon Chengdu, China Single Line No N/A
R. Elbert and J. Rentschler Research in Transportation Business & Management xxx (xxxx) xxx

based approaches are also predominantly implemented there. Deviating by the customers. Different storage locations can be implemented at the
from this, Mazzarino and Rubini (2019) and Bruzzone, Cavallaro, and public transportation station. Motraghi and Marinov (2012) suggest
Nocera (2021) analyze a mixed passenger and freight urban system in using modern Urban Consolidation Centers, which allow time-sensitive
the Venice Lagoon for different types of ships. They conclude that a goods to be delivered and held ahead of the time when they are
mixed passenger and freight urban system is viable if it is economically needed and are a good starting point for further door-to-door delivery. In
attractive for all stakeholders involved in the supply chain and deduce a Trentini and Malhene (2012) the packages are kept in simple parcel
set of central key performance indicators. Shen et al. (2015) use a case boxes until the customer picks them up. 9 references consider the de­
study to consider and investigate whether the size of logistics service livery of the goods to the end customer. The preferred means of trans­
providers' fleets can be reduced by attaching trailers to buses. portation are cargo bikes or electric vehicles in order to keep the external
costs as low as possible. However, the analysis of the final delivery of the
4.2.3. Shared aspects goods is not the main concern. Many references mention it only briefly
The proportion of different sharing types of public transportation is and do not elaborate on it (e.g. Zhou & Zhang, 2020).
approximately equally distributed as can be seen in Fig. 5. The most
frequently investigated sharing types are track (10 out of 18), followed 4.3. Research with a focus on quantitative methods
by vehicles and wagons (each 7 out of 18). This is an indication that
there is no superior approach, but that a solution for freight on public This section reviews existing quantitative research for freight on
transportation must always be tailored to the local conditions. public transit. The organization of the review is, as in the previous
section, based on the central problem characteristics (See Table 5).
4.2.4. Used data Furthermore, we analyze the references regarding the researched
This conclusion is also supported by the data used in the projects. (mathematical) problems, modeling approach, objective function, and
Since there is no standardized dataset, data from local sources is mainly solution methodologies. Finally, we give a short comparison between
used. Some of these local projects serve as a basis for several publica­ the qualitative and quantitative approaches.
tions. The Tyne and Wear metro service in Newcastle upon Tyne is
chosen to serve as a case study by Dampier and Marinov (2015), Kelly 4.3.1. Planning problem
and Marinov (2017), and Motraghi and Marinov (2012). They examine The quantitative studies are much more diverse than the qualitative
the region from different perspectives such as simulation, feasibility ones and cover strategic, tactical, and operational levels of planning. An
studies, and interior design of metro cars. In their consecutive studies, de overview can be found in Fig. 4. On the strategic planning level, Ji et al.
Langhe et al. first develop the common external cost values for Belgium (2020) and Zhao et al. (2018) researched hub location problems. Ji et al.
and then apply them in a social cost-benefit analysis for Antwerp (De (2020) design a multimodal passenger-and-package sharing network to
Langhe, 2017; De Langhe et al., 2019). In China, a satellite city devel­ develop a hub-and-spoke structure, including hubs located at metro
opment project named “Beijing New City Center” has served as basis for stations and service stores connected to the hubs. Packages are trans­
the analysis preliminary prototyping approach of a urban freight ported by the metro on backbone links between the hubs. Zhao et al.
transportation system based on rail transit (Hu, Dong, Hwang, Ren, & (2018) take advantage of a metro system's underutilized capacity during
Chen, 2020). off-peak periods to transport same-day delivery items. For this, they
locate the distribution hubs and construct a metro-integrated logistics
4.2.5. Underlying network structure system. They test their approach in a case study for Shanghai. On the
The underlying network is kept as simple as possible in many studies. tactical level, Cheng et al. (2018) envision the use of idle bus capacity for
Out of 17 studies investigating explicit transportation in a public trans­ city-wide package distribution. They model the delivering scheme as an
portation network, 10 model the network using only a single line. This is instance of the multi-commodity network design and network flow
in accordance with the novelty of the research area, as newer publica­ problem with four different package states i.e., waiting at a bus stop,
tions tend to consider more complex networks. For instance, and Van riding a bus to its destination, re-waiting at an intermediate bus stop to
Duin, Wiegmans, Tavasszy, Hendriks, & He, 2019 consider a network vacate space for passengers, and being unloaded when arriving at its
consisting of several independent lines but neglect the transshipment final destination. Xie, Wang, and Fukuda (2020) analyze the welfare
between the lines. Whereas Hu, Dong, Hwang, Ren, Chen, and Chen effects of different fare regimes when allowing parcel services on urban
(2020), Mazzarino and Rubini (2019), and Shen et al. (2015) assume rail transit. Therefore, they model the optimal service problem to choose
complex networks with interconnected lines and transfer possibilities. the number of trains and the departure intervals. Further, they introduce
a reduced train timetable problem and extend the passenger train
4.2.6. Standardized transportation unit crowding model to incorporate the effect of freight train scheduling.
STUs can improve the handling of goods and thus help to save time Most of the quantitative references (11 out of 15) choose to model a
and costs. Therefore 8 studies assume or use STUs. The fact that 9 studies problem on the operational level. Of these 11 problems, 8 deal with the
do not explicitly use STUs could be seen more as neglect in modeling, Vehicle Routing Problem or one of its special cases (Fatnassi et al., 2015;
rather than a deliberate decision against doing so. For instance, Kikuta Ghilas, Cordeau, Demir, & van Woensel, 2018; Ghilas, Demir, & van
et al. (2012) conducted a pilot study in the city of Sapporo. In this study, Woensel, 2016a; Ghilas, Demir, & van Woensel, 2016b; Ghilas, Demir, &
they transported a handcart with goods in the metro on a one-time basis van Woensel, 2016cChien-Lu et al., 2018; Masson et al., 2017; Zhao
to examine passenger acceptance. For this pilot study, it was neither et al., 2019). The publications of the group of authors around Ghilas are
necessary nor practical to develop and build an STU. worth noting. In (Ghilas et al., 2016b) they introduce the pickup and
delivery problem with time windows and scheduled lines (PDPTW-SL).
4.2.7. Last mile This problem aims at routing a given set of vehicles to transport freight
Public transportation stops are only rarely the destinations of the requests from their origins to their corresponding destinations, where
freight to be transported. Usually, it is more likely to be the case that the the requests can use scheduled passenger transportation services as a
freight has to be handed over to the end customer after being transported part of their journeys. In Ghilas et al. (2016a) they develop a heuristic to
by public transportation. A good strategic choice of the served public solve the previously posed problem in a reasonable time. In Ghilas et al.
transportation stations can help to reduce the distance to be covered. But (2016c) the model is extended by stochastically occurring demands and
to deliver the freight, it must either be picked up or transported to the a solution algorithm for this modified model. This approach is com­
final destination. In the investigated qualitative corpus, the two methods plemented by Mourad, Puchinger, and van Woensel (2020), as they
are equally distributed. 6 references suggest having the goods picked up integrate autonomous, pickup and delivery robots and assume shared

7
 R. Elbert and J. Rentschler
Table 5
Summary of quantitative research.
Reference Problem Mode Sharing Model Objective Solution Data Network STU Last Mile

Behiri et al. (2018) Freight Rail Transport Light Rail Vehicle MIP Minimize total waiting time Custom Heuristic Paris, France Single Line yes N/A
Scheduling Problem (FRTSP) of demands at stops
Cheng et al. (2018) Network Design Bus Wagon MIP Minimize total delivery time Genetic Algorithm Changsha, China Network no Pickup and delivery
vehicles
Fatnassi et al. (2015) Stacker Crane Problem Personal rapid Track MIP Minimize costs Custom Solution Approach Corby, UK Network, no no N/A
transit transshipment
Ghilas et al. (2016a) PDPTW-SL Scheduled lines Vehicle MIP Minimize costs Adaptive Large Synthetical data Network, no no Pickup and delivery
Neighborhood Search transshipment vehicles
Ghilas et al. (2016b) PDPTW-SL Scheduled lines Vehicle MIP Minimize costs Standard Solver Synthetical data Network, no no Pickup and delivery
transshipment vehicles
Ghilas et al. (2016c) PDPTW-SL Scheduled lines Vehicle Two-Stage Stochastic Minimize costs Adaptive Large Amsterdam, Network, no no Pickup and delivery
Programming Neighborhood Search and Netherlands transshipment vehicles
Sample Average
Approximation
Ghilas et al. (2018) PDPTW-SL Scheduled lines Vehicle MIP Minimize costs Branch and Price Synthetical data Network, no no Pickup and delivery
transshipment vehicles
Ji et al. (2020) Hub Location Problem Light Rail, taxiVehicle MIP Minimize costs Genetic Algorithm Shanghai, China Network yes Taxis, Trucks
8

Wagon
Pternea et al. (2018) VRP Bus Vehicle MIP Minimize costs Standard Solver Columbus, Ohio Network, no no Pickup and delivery
Wagon transshipment vehicles
Masson et al. (2017) VRP Bus Vehicle MIP Minimize the number of Adaptive Large La Rochelle, France Single Line yes Bike
Wagon vehicles and costs Neighborhood Search
Mourad et al. (2020) PDPTW-SL Scheduled lines Wagon Two-Stage Stochastic Minimize costs Adaptive Large Synthetical data Network Yes Robots
Programming Neighborhood Search and
Sample Average
Approximation

Research in Transportation Business & Management xxx (xxxx) xxx

Ozturk and Patrick (2018) Generalized Allocation Light Rail Track MIP Minimize total tardiness of Custom Heuristic Synthetical data Single Line no N/A
Problem deliveries and the number of
trains
Pimentel and Alvelos (2018) Assignment and Bus Wagon MIP Minimize service time Standard Solver Synthetical data Network, no yes Pickup and delivery
synchronization problem transshipment vehicles
Xie et al. (2020) Transit crowding model and Light Rail Track MINLP Maximize consumer surplus Analytical Synthetical data Single Line no N/A
bottleneck model (welfare)
Zhao et al. (2018) Hub Location Problem Light Rail Wagon MIP & TOPSIS Minimize total distance from Standard Solver Shanghai, China Network no Motorcycles
demand sites to hubs small trucks
Zhao et al. (2019) VRP Light Rail Wagon MIP Minimize total delivery time Genetic Algorithm Shanghai, China Single Line no Motorcycles
small trucks
R. Elbert and J. Rentschler Research in Transportation Business & Management xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 4. Distribution of planning problems according to the planning horizon.

capacity on public transportation, whereby the number of available which movements are done following point-to-point transit service. The
places for robots is only revealed upon shuttle arrival. In the last paper, RT system generally uses a dedicated infrastructure based on guideways
Ghilas et al. (2018) focus on the development of an exact algorithm for and stations similar to traditional metro or tramway systems.
the solution of the basic problem. In these interrelated publications,
Ghilas et al. (2016b) plays a central role, as the original design was 4.3.3. Shared aspects
stated at the beginning and then adapted over time. Further planning Only a minority of references (3 out of 16) consider shared tracks.
problems on the operational level are proposed by Behiri et al. (2018). Instead, shared vehicles and wagons form the main focus of interest.
They develop a general framework to model and simulate freight on There could be two reasons for this. First, mathematical models are
public transportation by providing seven planning problems. Then they usually used when the problem is more complex. Since the number of
specifically consider the freight rail transportation scheduling problem shared aspects increases when the vehicle or wagon is shared, these two
as a general case of resource sharing. Resource sharing is also considered problem classes can be classified as more complex than shared track. On
by Ozturk and Patrick (2018), as they examined methods for optimizing the other hand, mathematical model problems have only recently been
the deployment of trains or railway cars. Pimentel and Alvelos (2018) considered in research. As the field of research has developed over time,
studied medium to short term planning by balancing the freight loads it is only logical that more advanced problems are now being consid­
with the system's capacity and synchronizing the distribution process ered, which require the use of mathematical models. This observation is
along with the urban network while establishing the required time to consistent for the development of the corpus over time, depicted in
service customers. Fig. 1, and the proportion of the shared aspects, displayed in Fig. 5.
In the following subsections, we discuss the mathematical modeling
4.3.2. Employed mode of the problems in depth. Thereby we focus on the chosen model type,
Regarding the transportation mode, the quantitative references are objective, and solution approach.
more diverse than the qualitative ones. From the 16 references 6 consider
light railways and 4 consider buses. Since Ghilas et al. speak only of 4.3.4. Mathematical model
scheduled lines, which could refer to buses, trams, or metro, they are Most of the references (13 out of 16) choose a linear mixed integer
counted separately. Fatnassi et al. (2015) however, consider an on- model to investigate their specific problem. In contrast, Xie et al. (2020)
demand rapid transit (RT) system in urban areas. Personal and freight choose a non-linear mixed integer model to capture the price elasticity
RT falls under the class of automated guideway transit systems. RT uses a of freight demand. Ghilas et al. (2016c) and Mourad et al. (2020) model
driverless technology that offers a specific transportation transit option in the stochastic parameters through a two-stage stochastic programming

Qualitave Quantave
12 10
10 8
10 8 8
8
6
6 7 7
4
4
4 2 3
2
0 0
Track Vehicle Wagon Other Track Vehicle Wagon

Track Vehicle Wagon Other Track Vehicle Wagon

Fig. 5. Proportion of different sharing types.

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R. Elbert and J. Rentschler Research in Transportation Business & Management xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 6. Solution Approaches for the quantitative references.

model with different demand or capacity scenarios. Zhao et al. (2018) Only five references explicitly consider an STU. This is somewhat
select candidate distribution hubs for a p-median hub location model surprising as this would make real-world transshipment as well as
using the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal So­ modeling of the problems a lot easier.
lution (TOPSIS). The quantitative references seem to put efficiency over environ­
mental aspects for the last mile, as bicycles are only integrated by
4.3.5. Objective Masson et al. (2017). On the other hand, ten references perform the last
All but one reference aim to minimize an objective. This could be mile with petroleum-based vehicles.
costs (9 out of 15), delivery or waiting time (5 out of 15), number of
vehicles (2 out of 15), or distance (one). Only Xie et al. (2020) aim to 4.3.9. Comparison between qualitative and quantitative approaches
maximize consumer welfare. It is also noteworthy that no model The dates of publication alone already indicate that qualitative and
explicitly considers environmental objectives, even though this was quantitative approaches cannot be considered separately. Rather, they
generally given as the motivation for the study. build on each other and complement each other through their different
perspectives. While the focus in the early years was still on qualitative
4.3.6. Solution approach research, this shifted to a mixture of qualitative and quantitative research.
Fig. 6 provides an overview of the solution approaches for quanti­ Regarding the investigated problem aspects, it can be seen that qualitative
tative references. The approaches can be divided into exact methods and publications focus strongly on the implementation of holistic freight on
(meta-)heuristics. Exact methods can be decomposed further into public transportation. For this purpose, case studies or cost-benefit ana­
analytical, branch & price, and standard solver, whereas (meta-) heu­ lyses are preferred. Quantitative publications, on the other hand, focus
ristics can be divided into custom solution approaches, genetic algo­ much more on specific and isolated planning problems, which they usu­
rithms, and adaptive large neighborhood searches. Due to the complex ally solve with the help of mathematical optimization.
problem structure, the majority of the models are solved heuristically Not surprisingly, light railways are the dominant mode of trans­
(10 out of 16 models), whereby the various sub-categories are equally portation in both the qualitative and quantitative approaches (15 and 6
distributed. each) followed by buses (2 and 4 each). In addition, there are several
other transportation modes used, such as boats, personal rapid transit,
4.3.7. Data used aerial ropeway or scheduled lines in general. The shared aspects are
Compared to the qualitative references, with quantitative references it evenly distributed over the whole corpus (12 times shared track, 15
is more common to use a synthetical dataset to test the implemented times shared vehicle, 15 times shared wagon). However, the qualitative
models and solution approaches (7 out of 16). For example, Ghilas et al. corpus emphasizes the simpler shared tracks, while the more complex
use the same synthetic dataset in their publications to compare their so­ shared vehicle and wagon aspects are examined in the quantitative
lution methods. However, data from local sources remains predominant corpus. Environmental concerns are often mentioned as a motivation for
(9 out of 16). Thereby a slight shift from Europe to China can be observed. freight on public transportation. Mostly, however, especially in calcu­
lations, freight on public transportation is only examined with regard to
4.3.8. Underlying network structure, standardized transportation unit and a monetary target dimension. The examination is usually performed
last-mile with data from local transportation authorities. There is no standardized
Regarding the underlying network structure, it can be observed that dataset to compare different approaches. This reflects the unique local
in comparison to the qualitative problems, here networks are considered conditions, which make it necessary to design customized solutions. This
which are much more complex. Only five references consider just a also explains the high diversity of published research articles, as this
single line. Eleven studies examine a complete network and Cheng et al. research field is problem-driven by practical necessities.
(2018), Ji et al. (2020), and Zhao et al. (2019) even allow transshipment
between the lines.

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4.4. Fields for future research and opportunities and barriers 4.4.4. Developing sophisticated solution algorithms and increasing the
number of simulation studies
After presenting the references, in this last subsection, an outlook on For problem instances increasing in size and for models incorporating
future fields of research and the opportunities and barriers for freight on stochastic or real-time information more efficient solution approaches
public transportation is given (referring to RQ 3). Five main fields can be are necessary. When comparing the solution approaches for the quanti­
identified, which are expounded in the following subsections. tative references, a broad research stream for heuristic solution ap­
proaches can be identified. On the other hand, there is a lack of exact
4.4.1. Extending the scope by including external effects solution methods, which would also allow us to better estimate the
Only a limited number of references have included environmental quality of heuristics. So far, only Ghilas et al. (2018) developed an exact
aspects into the models so far. As reducing external costs is a main driver branch and price method.
for promoting freight on public transportation, the state of research A further methodological research gap is the lack of simulation
might not reflect this aspect adequately. The few models which integrate studies. Especially the combination of simulation and optimization might
respective indicators stress the benefit of the consideration of external be a promising approach.
costs, as this enables freight on public transportation to compete with
conventional transportation (Alessandrini et al., 2012; Dampier & 4.4.5. Opportunities and barriers for freight on public transportation
Marinov, 2015; De Langhe, 2017; De Langhe et al., 2019; Hu, Dong, Freight transportation in public transportation has been studied for
Hwang, Ren, & Chen, 2020; Van Duin et al., 2019). Particularly note­ several years, but is not yet a full-fledged reality and serious imple­
worthy is that no quantitative model takes external costs into account in mentations in practice are lacking. Therefore, it is important to under­
its objective function. stand the caveats and barriers that prevent full implementation and to
In consequence, further research could focus on analyzing concrete highlight the opportunities that freight on public transportation offers.
political measures like CO2 taxes or tolls for delivery vehicles and The basic prerequisite for a successful implementation of freight on
include benefits for avoided congestion and accidents. As many models public transportation, which is mentioned throughout the literature, is
study the transportation processes on a detailed level, the effects of such sufficient capacity in the public transportation network (e.g. Behiri et al.,
measures can be determined precisely for concrete cases. Therefore, 2018; Cheng et al., 2018; Dampier & Marinov, 2015). If the network is
planning models for freight on public transportation could especially already stretched to its capacity limits by passenger transport, freight
contribute to the field by identifying the effects of concrete ranges in transportation is not a viable option. In order to keep the impact on
dependence of varying levels on CO2 tax or tolls passenger transportation as low as possible, well-functioning technology
is essential. This includes, in particular, the smooth loading and
4.4.2. Studying profit and welfare maximization instead of minimization of unloading of goods at stops with acceptable operational restrictions. In
cost, time, and vehicles the early years of development, this was still a major focus (Kelly &
Current research on freight on public transportation focuses on cost Marinov, 2017; Motraghi & Marinov, 2012; Shen et al., 2015). In contrast
minimization under the prerequisite of fulfilling all occurring trans­ Hu, Dong, Hwang, Ren, and Chen (2020) as well as Cochrane et al.
portation requests. Only De Langhe et al., 2019), incorporate monetary (2017) find that today most of the technologies needed for successful
benefits from fulfilling the transportation orders into their cost-benefit- implementation of freight on public transportation are widely applied
analysis. Xie et al. (2020) aim to maximize consumer welfare by with a relatively high maturity, and thus do not represent a constraint.
analyzing different fare regimes. Rather, they see soft technologies concerning operations management
The simultaneous decision on fares, transportation orders, and the and systems planning as the next development steps that are needed to
offered service could increase the profit of public transportation oper­ advance an implementation of freight on public transportation.
ators and so enable them to compete in an environment with usually Many of the freight on public transportation approaches have only
low-profit margins. In a further extension of this approach, prices for been developed on paper. More pilot studies would help to test the
different orders can be variable and the price-demand-functions of the proposed implementations under real conditions (Galkin et al., 2019).
customers as the passengers can be integrated. The result could be a So far, mostly single lines or networks without the transshipment of
different transportation schedule compared to a minimal cost freight on goods have been considered. Networks with several lines and trans­
public transportation planning. shipment between them could lead to higher coverage and more effi­
cient transportation, but also increase the demands on planning.
4.4.3. Need for data and the integration of stochastic and real-time All in all, however, it appears that the main barriers preventing the
information implementation of freight on public transportation are not technical or
Quantitative analyses represent a considerable proportion of the organizational, but rather related to financing, policy and stakeholders
publications examined. Meaningful conclusions rely on the precise (Arvidsson, 2010; Cochrane et al., 2017).
estimation of real-life data. Accordingly, future studies should strive to High investment costs can be expected at the beginning of freight on
obtain the best possible data. public transportation projects. These are incurred, among other things,
So far, only few references integrate stochastic or real-time data by the need to lay new tracks, the conversion of wagons for freight
(Ghilas et al., 2016c; Mourad et al., 2020). The consideration of sto­ transportation or the purchase of equipment. Lack of financing was the
chastic data such as freight demand, capacity, travel time, or traffic main reason why the CityCargo project in Amsterdam failed (Arvidsson
jams can help to incorporate varying and uncertain parameters and so & Browne, 2013).
lead to robust solutions with significant advantages over their deter­ In numerous countries, the joint transportation of people and goods
ministic counterparts (Elbert, Müller, & Rentschler, 2020). is still not permitted by law (Bruzzone et al., 2021). Bruzzone et al.
In particular, vehicle routing problems, which account for a (2021) further note that freight and passenger transportation are not
considerable number of the problems studied, can benefit from dy­ only considered separate systems by governments, but are also desig­
namic approaches (Psaraftis, Wen, & Kontovas, 2016). The integration nated as such by law. They are regulated by different authorities and are
of real-time data such as new orders or traffic jams can lead to shorter subject to different rules and policies, as well as different contracting
service times and stronger synchronization between different tiers in and employment structures.
two-tiered models. Urban logistics is a subject that affects numerous stakeholders. These
stakeholders must be consulted in the development and implementation
of freight on public transportation approaches. A central aspect is the
economic attractiveness for all stakeholders involved in the supply chain

11
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(Mazzarino & Rubini, 2019). Accordingly, research on stakeholder References

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