The optimal routes and modes selection in multimodal transportation networks based on improved A* algorithm

We build an integrated optimization model for the choice of transport mode and transport route in the multimodal transportation networks. The proposed optimization model consider the following factors, such as transport cost, transport time, transfer cost, transfer time, schedule of railway or water way, congestion of highway, frequency of accident, and frequent route under specific requirements. An improved A∗ algorithm with time window is presented to solve the proposed optimization under the gridding multimodal transportation network. This improved algorithm mainly designs a weighted evaluation function to integrate above factors for dynamically choosing transport routes and transport modes. Numerical example shows that the improved algorithm can obtain the optimal transport modes and routs simultaneously. It also that the proposed algorithm is extendable by using the weighted evaluation function.