Abstract: Facing with such huge container handling capacity, a collection and distribution system in high-efficiency is needed to equip with every large port. However, most activities of collection and distribution are done by truck transportation, which obviously is too homogeneous to meet the demand.On the one hand, since the railway department separates its politics and enterprise, more flexible price making is allowed and service level is making a progress. On the other hand, the national planning stresses the reform of railway transport repeatedly, which also makes great efforts to develop the rail-sea intermodal transportation. 18 railway center stations are built around China by relevant government and national enterprise, and many multi-joint ventures are introduced to develop rail-sea intermodal transport business, which makes the appearance of independent rail transport operator. They are different from the railway company and owe relatively independent transportation operation rights, such as Multimodal Transport Company in Dalian port.
The pricing and operating optimization problem of railway transport service under the competition with road transport service is studied in this paper. In this paper, the formula of two stages model is used respectively:Customer Value=Customer Benefits-Customer Losses=Consumer Surplus Value-Opportunity Costs,Consumer Surplus Value=Consumer Utility-The actual price paid. The relationship between the pricing and the demand of the railway is determined through a two-stage model, and the route combination with the lowest cost is optimized under a certain pricing level. The model is solved by the self-designed heuristic algorithm and improved algorithm. In the third stage, when analyzing the two models, they need to be discussed respectively. The different profitability of railway departments under different pricing levels and demand levels is compared. Then, the ultimate railway department optimal pricing and the corresponding haircut program are determined comprehensively through the formula:Profit=Revenue-In-transit costs-In-station management costs-Handling costs-Average customer waiting costs. Finally, using data from market research, the result of optimal train routes, frequency and time is obtained under different prices. The result indicates joint optimization of pricing and operation strategy can achieve best profit for independent railway operator.
The innovations of the paper are the combination of pricing and operation scheduling in rail-sea intermodal transportation, and the interactions between the two aspects are taken into consideration. The optimal decisions that would achieve the highest profit at last conclude the best price making as well as operation planning.

Key words: container, rail-sea multimodal transportation, pricing, operation optimization, train arrangements