Work

OD-Differentiated Rail Subsidies for Modal Shift: Incorporating Mode Choice and OD Matching

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Rail subsidies are widely recognized as an effective policy instrument for promoting modal shift from road to rail. However, existing studies rarely consider shippers’ mode choice and origin-destination (OD) matching behavior jointly in subsidy scheme design. This study fills this gap by developing a bi-level multi-objective programming model to determine differentiated subsidy rates for each OD pair. The upper level optimizes economic and environmental objectives, while the lower level predicts shippers’ behavior using a combined spatial interaction and logit model. A genetic algorithm with a membership function approach is designed to solve the model. Using Beijing’s sand and gravel aggregate freight network as a case study, results show that the subsidy policy reduces carbon emissions by 46% and shifts 60.04 million tons of freight from road to rail, with the share of rail freight rising from less than 1% to about 62%. The optimal subsidy rates exhibit significant spatial heterogeneity. Compared with a uniform subsidy scheme, the OD-differentiated scheme performs better in both economic and environmental terms. Sensitivity analyses show that the total subsidy cap affects the results the model can achieve, and that a trade-off exists between the economic and environmental objectives.

Source: Systems

DOI: 10.3390/systems14101294

Authors: Xiaoyu Tan, Yuting Zhu, Mingyue Yu, Yuanyuan Song, Yuanyuan Zhao

Institutions: Ministry of Transport, Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing Municipal Engineering Design and Research Institute (China)

Language: English

Topic: transportation and logistics systems

Subfield: Transportation

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Industry, innovation and infrastructure, Climate action, Sustainable cities and communities

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,896