Intermodal freight transport is increasing globally and is a key policy challenge worldwide. However, national and regional policy settings and approaches differ. This investigation focuses on the European Union, the United States and Japan.

Intermodal logistics must pursue a dual systems strategy optimizing the supply chain and linkages between partner companies, and optimizing the use of the multi-modal transport system to respond to economic criteria, environmental concerns and growing highway congestion. Starting with the definition of intermodal freight logistics in terms of seamless door-to-door operations using successively at least two different modes - road, rail, waterway/sea or air -, the study sets the scene by summarising modal and intermodal freight shares in the EU, U.S. and Japan. It identifies the commonalities and differences in policy goals and measures and analyses EU, US and Japanese programmes. Three special initiatives - EU's Marco Polo Program and the US policies on Intermodal Connectors and Intelligent Intermodal Freight Systems - are assessed as are the Japanese targeted policy actions on city, regional and international logistics. Emphasis is on what can be learnt from the practices and experiences in the three regions.

In domestic land transportation network for international maritime containers, there are many restrictions on full-loaded and high-cube containers. Also, to realize efficient transportation of maritime cargos, it is necessary to implement effectively infrastructure construction projects, considering the linkage between ports and roads. This paper therefore investigates the effect of bottlenecks in the road transportation network, considering international maritime containers. First, the current condition and traffic restriction system on semi-trailer transportation is summarized. Second, three passable road networks are made, according to container types. Bottlenecks in the actual transportation network are then extracted, and economic benefit of their elimination is calculated.

The private bus services in depopulated areas are increasingly becoming unprofitable and facing challenges to maintain the service level. This paper discusses, what level of bus services the local authorities in the depopulated areas should provide to secure a reasonable degree of mobility for residents who are not able to use a car. From the view point of fairness, local authority need to operate the bus service, but equally important issue is how to make the best possible performance for the given financial constraints. We need to discuss about criteria to evaluate the local transport policy, because of achieving the best performance subject to finance constraints. The paper finally works out an appropriate level of bus service, which local residents desire and have willingness to pay for