Selecting a location for establishing a rail-road intermodal terminal by using a hybrid SWOT/MCDM model

The study proposes a methodology based on the combination of Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) analysis and Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods for selecting the most appropriate location for establishing an intermodal terminal. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment of Evaluations (PROMETHEE) are the MCDM methods used in the paper. The methodology contains four steps. In the first step we determine the alternatives variants of the location of intermodal terminal. In the second step the SWOT analysis have been applied to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to the surveyed system. The sub-criteria for each SWOT group have been defined. A total of 33 criteria are included in the study. Third step includes determination of weights of main criteria and sub-criteria by applying AHP method. The results of weights given in this step are used in the four step to ranking the alternative variants of the intermodal terminal location by using PROMETHEE method. The methodology has been approved for choosing the location of intermodal terminal in the city of Ruse. Five alternative locations of intermodal terminal have been studied. The results show that main importance of SWOT group has the strengths group criteria (0.471). It was found that the internal factors including the strengths and weaknesses have more important compared to the external factors including the opportunities and threats when studying the location of intermodal terminal. It was found that the main importance of all sub-criteria have the quantity of manipulated containers (9%), connectivity to road infrastructure (6%), rail connection with a port (5%) and average useful length of railway tracks used for loading/unloading activities (5%). The study shows that location that is situated in the place of the suspended Ruse-East railway yard is the best alternative for intermodal terminal location.