Development of a decision support module

The objective of WP7 is to develop an interactive software device to support real cost calculations of intermodal transport corridors. It will further allow users to design and run policy scenarios, simulating the impacts of specific cost reduction actions.

This aim will be achieved through two tasks:

Task 7.1
Design and implementation of a software module to support real cost calculations and "what if" scenarios

The software module will include:

• a database designed to accommodate bottom-up data relating to specific chains
• a database designed to accommodate top-down data, needed for both taxes and charges (see WP5), and reference road costs. The latter will allow for a systematic comparison between real intermodal costs and reference "all road" alternative.
• a procedure for the bottom-up calculation of costs related to specific chains
• a procedure for the comparison of intermodal costs with the "all road" reference option
• a procedure for the simulation ("what if" type) of the effects of possible changes in any one of the costs components (resource, external costs, taxation) which may be prompted by policy measures and/or by improvements in the operational management of intermodal chains, or part(s) of those.

The design and implementation of this module will be inspired, among others, by the structure and characteristics of the decision support module developed in the QUITS project for the calculation of internal costs of inter-urban trips.

Task 7.2
Validation

The effort devoted - in Task 7.1 - to the development of the RECORDIT decision support module is mainly justified by the perspective of its application beyond the framework of this project as a tool to assess intermodal costs systematically and consistently as well as the opportunities to reduce them. To this end, this Task will proceed to a full scale validation of the various software functionalities, based on their application to the intermodal corridors analysed in WP3 and WP4. This will allow to test the effectiveness of the system and to pave the way to its generalised use. Validation will include, in particular, the complete calculation of costs for the selected corridors, and the test of the software module’s capability to support the user in carrying out sensitivity analyses and policy scenarios, whereby it will allow to simulate changes in individual cost components and their impact on total costs. Considering the complexity of the intermodal cost assessment, and the - often high - level of disagreement on cost evaluation and justification among the various players (modal and intermodal operators, shippers, public authorities), the RECORDIT interactive software will have an important role to play in providing objective and consistent inputs to the overall debate and negotiations on the subject matter. On the other hand, it will allow to stress the essential data needs attached to the cost calculation exercise, feeding into the on-going process which aims at establishing a coherent data framework for European intermodal transport (as e.g. undertaken by INFREDAT).

The RECORDIT software, complete with the necessary technical and users’ documentation will be ready in December 2000 and a validation Report, including recommendations for generalisation and dissemination will be ready in April 2001.

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