International multimodal transport connectivity assessment of multimodal transport from mainland China to Europe

In this study, we propose a novel International Multimodal Transport Connectivity (IMTC) index and assess the IMTC of multimodal transport from mainland China to Europe. We first present the definition of IMTC, which represents the ease of transporting export cargoes from a domestic origin to an overseas destination by an international multimodal transport network. Second, we propose two kinds of IMTC indexes and then give detailed measurement methods by considering the main modes (i.e., railway express and maritime shipping) in the international multimodal transport process. One is the monetary-based IMTC measured by the monetary cost shippers must pay for transporting export cargo to an overseas region. The other is the time-based IMTC, which is measured by the time cost of the international multimodal transport process and incorporates the time value of different export cargo categories and transport time uncertainty. Third, we assess the IMTC of the international multimodal transport from mainland China to Europe and we mainly compare the monetary-based and the time-based IMTCs via the CR Express or maritime shipping in the pre- and post-COVID years. The results indicate that monetary-based IMTCs from China to Europe via CR Express are significantly lower than those via maritime shipping in the pre-COVID year, while the trend reverses in the post-COVID year, and the monetary-based IMTCs via CR Express are much higher than those via maritime shipping. Moreover, in both the pre-and post-COVID years, the time-based IMTCs from China to Europe via CR Express were significantly higher than those via maritime shipping for all nine cargo categories. Our study offers a new perspective for assessing the convenience of international multimodal transport with the novel IMTC index and provides policy and managerial implications (e.g., real-time cargo tracking technology with blockchain, unified price control mechanism and subsidy strategy, and expansion of the CR Express capacity) to guide policymakers in improving the resilience of international multimodal transport.