peer reviewed ; From the perspective of stimulating intermodal transport as an ecological and economically promising freight transport scheme in the EU, this paper is devoted to assess its future position with respect to crucial and plausible operational factors that were selected a priori. The study is conducted in the context of a best-case scenario development, within a rational and optimal decision making framework. We address this goal by designing a realistic medium-term network design and pricing model, from the economic perspective of a typical intermodal operator, fitted to the sequential mathematical structure of bilevel programming. Based on real-life sized data, in and through Belgium, the results underline the costly position of rail transport and a clear correlation between the competitiveness of intermodal transport on one side, and the market size and the trucking competition’s price on the other. It is additionally suggested that intermodal transport can benefit from small rail subsidies in the early market covering stages.