This paper is about distance and time in alternative bundling networks and roundtrip models. First the
relevance of transport costs and time for customers of intermodal transport is reviewed. Then the paper
focuses on vehicle roundtrip design in European intermodal rail networks and the perspectives to
accelerate roundtrip speed. Acceleration often implies an increase of service frequency. As transport
volumes often will not justify higher frequencies, the introduction of so-called complex bundling (e.g.
hub-and-spoke or line services) may be an outcome. Complex bundling allows applying a relative large
vehicle scale, despite of restricted flow sizes. This cost advantage is likely to overrule the cost
disadvantage of longer routes in complex bundling networks. An important indication for this fact is a
comparison of total network distances and times. The last part of the paper compares the distances and
times of about 150 networks (different bundling concepts and network geometries). It shows that the
additional length of routes of complex bundling networks is always overruled by the distance and time
impact of a lower number of connections between begin- and end terminals in complex bundling
networks
