Table 1 Summary of disruption types,... | Emerald Publishing

Table 1

Summary of disruption types, impacts, and literature examples in freight transport networks

Type of disruption	Description of impact	Examples from literature	Citations
Natural disasters	Sudden events (e.g. floods, earthquakes, extreme weather) causing infrastructure damage, delays, or network paralysis. Tend to cover larger geographical areas and may persist over longer periods	Climate-induced disruptions, particularly heatwaves, are likely to become persistent rather than episodic, posing long-term threats to transport network resilience and freight capacity. Extreme weather events causing rail line closures, leading to fewer trains, longer journeys, and supply chain delays	Woodburn (2019), Rahimitouranposhti et al. (2025), Hrušovský et al. (2021)
Infrastructure failure	Breakdown or loss of key nodes/links (e.g. bridge collapse, tunnel closure) disrupting connectivity	Closure of Lamington Viaduct in the UK rail network; node removal reducing network tonnage capacity by up to 80% The collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore resulted in significant increases in travel time for all alternative routes, increased congestion, diminished reliability, and more accidents	Woodburn (2019), Rahimitouranposhti et al. (2025), Zahedian et al. (2025)
Accidents and incidents	Unexpected link closures or severe delays; missed time windows; hazardous material spills; higher costs and CO₂; need for rapid re-planning and rerouting. Often localised and affect specific routes or modes, depending on the criticality of the node	Accidents temporarily block transport links, causing delays and service infeasibility that require operational re-planning. The Suez Canal blockage triggered extensive vessel delays and rerouting, resulting in significant ship, inventory, and environmental costs across global maritime supply chains	Hrušovský et al. (2021), Tran et al. (2024)
Capacity degradation	Partial loss of network capacity due to congestion, maintenance, or weather, increasing travel times	Unexpected link disruptions reduce effective network capacity through delays and missed connections, necessitating real-time re-planning. Capacity degradation occurs when port failures trigger load redistribution, causing congestion and cascading declines in network connectivity and efficiency	Hrušovský et al. (2021), Cao et al. (2025b), Gu et al. (2023)
Human-induced crisis	Events like pandemics, financial crises, strikes or geopolitical turmoil causing widespread disruption	Targeted attacks that intentionally affect the most critical nodes or links in a transport network, resulting in disproportionately large system-wide impacts compared with random failures. Strikes of transport workers such as truck drivers can effectively blockade a national economy and harm key sectors. The war in Ukraine has resulted in extensive rerouting of flights between Europe and Asia and disrupted Danube and Black Sea shipping, as well as energy and grain flows and European rail and road freight corridors, generating prolonged capacity constraints and cascading impacts across transport networks and supply chains	Fu et al. (2022), Dirzka and Acciaro (2021), Rahimitouranposhti et al. (2025), Singh et al. (2021), Zhao et al. (2024), Nowak (2022), Ivannikova et al. (2024), Cao et al. (2025a)

Type of disruption	Description of impact	Examples from literature	Citations
Natural disasters	Sudden events (e.g. floods, earthquakes, extreme weather) causing infrastructure damage, delays, or network paralysis. Tend to cover larger geographical areas and may persist over longer periods	Climate-induced disruptions, particularly heatwaves, are likely to become persistent rather than episodic, posing long-term threats to transport network resilience and freight capacity. Extreme weather events causing rail line closures, leading to fewer trains, longer journeys, and supply chain delays	Woodburn (2019), Rahimitouranposhti et al. (2025), Hrušovský et al. (2021)
Infrastructure failure	Breakdown or loss of key nodes/links (e.g. bridge collapse, tunnel closure) disrupting connectivity	Closure of Lamington Viaduct in the UK rail network; node removal reducing network tonnage capacity by up to 80%The collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore resulted in significant increases in travel time for all alternative routes, increased congestion, diminished reliability, and more accidents	Woodburn (2019), Rahimitouranposhti et al. (2025), Zahedian et al. (2025)
Accidents and incidents	Unexpected link closures or severe delays; missed time windows; hazardous material spills; higher costs and CO₂; need for rapid re-planning and rerouting. Often localised and affect specific routes or modes, depending on the criticality of the node	Accidents temporarily block transport links, causing delays and service infeasibility that require operational re-planning. The Suez Canal blockage triggered extensive vessel delays and rerouting, resulting in significant ship, inventory, and environmental costs across global maritime supply chains	Hrušovský et al. (2021), Tran et al. (2024)
Capacity degradation	Partial loss of network capacity due to congestion, maintenance, or weather, increasing travel times	Unexpected link disruptions reduce effective network capacity through delays and missed connections, necessitating real-time re-planning. Capacity degradation occurs when port failures trigger load redistribution, causing congestion and cascading declines in network connectivity and efficiency	Hrušovský et al. (2021), Cao et al. (2025b), Gu et al. (2023)
Human-induced crisis	Events like pandemics, financial crises, strikes or geopolitical turmoil causing widespread disruption	Targeted attacks that intentionally affect the most critical nodes or links in a transport network, resulting in disproportionately large system-wide impacts compared with random failures. Strikes of transport workers such as truck drivers can effectively blockade a national economy and harm key sectors. The war in Ukraine has resulted in extensive rerouting of flights between Europe and Asia and disrupted Danube and Black Sea shipping, as well as energy and grain flows and European rail and road freight corridors, generating prolonged capacity constraints and cascading impacts across transport networks and supply chains	Fu et al. (2022), Dirzka and Acciaro (2021), Rahimitouranposhti et al. (2025), Singh et al. (2021), Zhao et al. (2024), Nowak (2022), Ivannikova et al. (2024), Cao et al. (2025a)

Source(s): Authors' own work