Research on Return Trip Competition and Cooperation of China-Europe Railway Express Platforms under Influence of Maritime Transportation
Since its first launch in 2011,the China-Europe Railway Express has become an important in-ternational rail-highway intermodal corridor connecting the countries along the"Belt and Road"with Chi-na and Europe.It has not only deepened the economic and trade cooperation between China and the coun-tries along the Belt and Road but has also become a key force in promoting the development of the"Belt and Road"Initiative.With the vigorous development of the China-Europe Railway Express,a series of is-sues have gradually emerged.The vicious competition between different operators of the China-Europe Railway Express has led to the construction of a large number of overlapping routes,wasting valuable rail-way resources and undercutting freight rates,thus hindering the high-quality development of the China-Europe Railway Express.In addition,the China-Europe Railway Express faces the fierce external competi-tion of maritime transportation and the imbalance between outbound and return shipments.In this paper,taking return trips into consideration,to study the pricing mechanism of two China-Europe Railway Ex-press platforms in the presence of a competing maritime transportation provider and the conditions for them to both benefit from cooperation rather than competition,we constructed the corresponding game models for the scenarios of competition and cooperation,then solved the model through backward induction,and obtained the optimal freight rates for all parties involved.Through a numerical simulation analysis,we com-pared the freight rates,transport volumes,and profits of the two platforms when in cooperation and competi-tion,and had a sensitivity analysis of the model parameters to further clarify the key factors affecting the coop-eration decision-making of the platforms.The research results indicate that in the face of competition from a maritime transportation provider,the two platforms can yield higher total profits when choosing to cooper-ate than to compete,and the profit gap between the platforms and the maritime transportation provider also narrows.When choosing to cooperate,the platforms can to a certain extent overcome the negative impact on them due to competition,thus avoiding the need for low-price competition.Therefore,it is evident that return trip cooperation is realistically and economically founded for the China-Europe Railway Express and can significantly enhance the profit levels of return trains.This research not only enriches the theoretical study of the return trip and coopetition relationship of China-Europe Railway Express platforms but also provides valuable references and insights for their practical operation.
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