The relevant pressure exerted on ports following the advent of globalization and containerization has contributed to transform the role of such intermodal transport facilities, increasing their complexity with reference to both performed activities and involved actors. The potential of solid hinterland connections in enhancing port competitiveness has sustained the larger embracement of the railway mode, which has proved to be a financially and environmentally sustainable solution, especially on long hauls. However, the limited residual capacity currently characterizing several railway network and nodes may threaten the accommodation of additional future traffic volumes and, thus, it requires the adoption of a coordinated strategy to more efficiently manage existing railway infrastructures, other than the realization of some new ones. In this regard, an integrated methodology has been developed to specifically model, simulate and optimize port railway processes, as part of a more complex system, imposing the maximization of capacity with the concurrent minimization of used shunting locomotives, to varying of infrastructural and operational conditions. This combination of techniques has been applied to the case study of the Port of Trieste, Italy, showing the greater influence of tracks availability over changes in the operational conditions, in terms of a shorter duration of specific administrative tasks and the employment of more shunting locomotives.

Ports play a central role in global trade and act as key hubs for both maritime and land transport. Free ports, characterized by special customs regimes and fiscal advantages, represent a distinctive segment of this landscape. Despite their relevance, the literature on port gate management and on free ports has developed disconnected research streams, leaving the operational implications of special customs regimes largely unexplored. This study addresses this gap by investigating how gate procedures in free ports can be managed more efficiently, using the Port of Trieste as a case study. The analysis combines Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) with discrete event simulation: BPMN served as the logical foundation for capturing the procedural complexity of free port gate operations, while simulation provided the quantitative framework for scenario evaluation. The model was calibrated on real gate access data and validated against observed vehicle volumes. Nine scenarios were evaluated, covering managerial, technological, infrastructural, and disruption-related interventions. The results show that no single measure produces significant improvements across all performance indicators and the integrated approaches consistently outperform standalone measures. Infrastructure interventions, while more costly, prove particularly valuable in improving port resilience under severe disruption conditions.

The selection of power supply technology for buses is a critical task given the increasing attention paid to environmental sustainability in the public transport sector. Indeed, the compliance of vehicle operational requirements with service characteristics is essential to provide users with an efficient offer. To this end, this study investigates the factors affecting such choices by performing two evaluation procedures, with the integration of different techniques and the engagement of an expert panel. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method was used to identify the best power supply technology among a few solutions in both procedures, which differed in the number of analyzed criteria. A literature review suggested a wide set of criteria considered in the first assessment, which were then limited to the most influential criteria using the fuzzy DEcision-MAking Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method. Notably, the latter enabled the reduction in the number of the criteria owing to the revealing of cause–effect relationships among them. The methodology was applied to a case study in the city of Trieste, Italy, comparing rankings obtained from the two appraisal procedures, which showed the predominance of internal combustion engine buses over hybrid and electric buses in terms of operational and financial aspects, despite their environmental impact.