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Green Rail Transportation: Improving Rail Freight to Support Green Corridors

  • Chapter
Green Transportation Logistics

Part of the book series: International Series in Operations Research & Management Science ((ISOR,volume 226))

Abstract

The objective of this chapter is to illustrate the current state of European rail freight research and how this can improve rail freight to support green and sustainable transport, as promoted by the governments of the European Union (EU). Since much of EU policy is based on EU funded research, a review of such rail- and freight-related research, carried out over the past 20 years under the EU/EC framework programmes, will help to contextualize the challenges faced in promoting the governance of green corridors. International rail freight systems, improvement of rail-road modal transfer points, unexploited markets, vehicle design, train productivity, energy use, signalling and governance of multimodal corridors, are all discussed. We argue that green corridors, as a strategic freight transport policy, can only realistically be implemented alongside improvements to the long distance transportation sector, where rail becomes the backbone network of land surface transportation. Additionally, with the trend towards urbanization, where road would serve pretty much the last mile freight operation, a reliable, efficient, safe and environmentally sound inter-urban long distance rail freight system is needed, to support economic growth and to maintain the quality of life of every EU citizen.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Accessed online as of July 2014.

  2. 2.

    Road-rail container swap body with length of 7.15, 7.45 or 7.82 m (standard EN 284) (UIRR, n.d.).

  3. 3.

    Swap body with lengths of 12.50 or 13.60 m (standard EN 452) (UIRR, n.d.).

  4. 4.

    The emission standards regulation for non-road diesel engine adopted in EU (DieselNet, n.d.).

Abbreviations

CEF:

Connecting Europe Facility

CER:

Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies

CO2 :

Carbon dioxide

COMECON:

Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Russian: Совет Экономической Взаимопомощи, Sovet Ekonomicheskoy Vzaimopomoshchi, СЭВ, SEV)

CORDIS:

Community Research and Development Information Service

EEC:

European Economic Community

EC:

European Commission

EU:

European Union

EU27:

Was the number of member states in the EU in 2007 after the joining of Romania and Bulgaria

ERRAC:

The European Rail Research Advisory Council

ERTMS:

European Transport Management System

ETCS:

European Train Control System

FP:

Framework Programme—EU research and technological development funding mechanism

GHG:

Greenhouse gas emissions

GSM-R:

Global System for Mobile Communications-Railway

ICT:

Information and communication technology

ISO:

International Organization for Standardization

KPI:

Key performance indicators

kWh/t/km:

Kilowatt hour per tonne per kilometer

LDHV:

Low density high value (goods)

NOx :

Mono-nitrogen oxides NO and NO2

OICA:

International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (French: Organization Internationale des Constructeurs d’Automobiles)

PM:

Particulate Matter PM10 are particles of 10 mm or less, PM25 of 2.5 mm or less in diameter

RFID:

Radio-frequency identification

SO x :

Sulphur oxides, the two major ones being sulphur dioxide (SO2) and sulphur trioxide (SO3)

SME:

Small Medium Enterprise

TEU:

Twenty foot equivalent unit

TEN-T:

Trans-European Transport Networks

TRIP:

Transport Research & Innovation Portal

UK:

United Kingdom

USA:

United States of America

WWII:

World War Two

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. NewRail—Newcastle Centre for Railway Research, School of Mechanical and Systems Engineering, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

    Paulus T. Aditjandra, Thomas H. Zunder, Dewan Md Zahurul Islam & Roberto Palacin

Authors
  1. Paulus T. Aditjandra
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  2. Thomas H. Zunder
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  3. Dewan Md Zahurul Islam
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  4. Roberto Palacin
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Correspondence to Paulus T. Aditjandra .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Transport, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark

    Harilaos N. Psaraftis

Appendices

Appendix 1: Selected Completed Projects Under the European Commission Framework Programmes That Promote Green Corridor Policy

Project acronym

Objective

Corridor assessed

Management/technology innovations

Lessons learned and policy implications

FP4 EUFRANET—improving the competitiveness of rail freight services (1997–1999)

To identify and evaluate strategic options for the development of a trans-European rail network mainly dedicated to freight transportation

This is a simulation approach so, effectively, corridors examined were across the European rail network

– Shippers’ survey with stated preference

Source: (EUFRANET, 2001)

– Demand model

– Definition of different layer of freight priority network

– Supply model

– Definition of a core network of freight, centred around BENELUX countries, with strands to Stockholm (SE), Bologna (IT), Marseille (FR) and Northern France, connecting to UK

– A dynamic equilibrium process of supply–demand for forecasting transport demand

– Definition of intermediate network, mainly dedicated to freight, but also carrying passenger trains

– A mixed network on which passenger trains would normally have priority

FP6 BRAVO—Brenner rail freight action strategy aimed at achieving a sustainable increase in intermodal transport volume (2004–2007)

To develop a coherent corridor management scheme enabling open access and act as a blueprint for an interoperable rail traction scheme involving multi-current locomotives

Munich (DE)—Verona (IT)

– Open corridor management system

Source: (BRAVO, 2007)

– Train path availability and allocation process

– Cross-border operation of multisystem-locomotives and loco drivers for efficient and reliable rail with more than 2,100 trains

– Interoperable rail traction scheme

– Radio-remote control of pushing engines to haul heavy trains on the steep Brenner north ramp

– Advanced customer information system

– Online train monitoring including estimated time of availability information accessible for all rail stakeholders

– Development schedule for unaccompanied combined transport (containers) services

– Feasibility of mega semitrailer pocket wagon, for higher capacity, to support automotive industry

FP6 TREND—implementation of change in the European rail freight area (2005–2006)

To accelerate the development of predominantly nationally aligned systems into a single, integrated Pan-European system approach towards rail freight service competitiveness

Corridor A: IT (Adriatic coast)—SI–HU

– Evaluation and assessment of Trans European rail freight services

Source: (TREND, 2006)

Corridor B-West: NL (seaports)—DE–CH–IT

– Web-based geo-referenced information system (GIS)

– An evaluation scheme for integration and interoperability of priority rail freight corridors

Corridor B-East: Scandinavia (German border)–DE–AT–IT

– Terms of reference for Trans European rail freight services

– Different countries characterised by different rail freight issues

Corridor C: DE (Ruhr area)—CZ/AT–SL–HU–RS/RO–BL–TR

– Experts workshops to identify potential pan European rail freight corridors

– Market forces need time to create competitive environment, despite increasing compliance of EU countries in liberalising the rail freight market

Corridor D: NL (seaports)—DE–PL–LT–LV–EE

– Rail freight is not relevant for every kind of traffic; focus on relevant market segments

Corridor E: FR (seaports UK via tunnel)—CH–IT

– Rail freight flow was unbalanced in terms of contribution to the different corridor destinations (the range of rail mode share is between 8 and 24 % across the six corridors)

Corridor F: DE (Ruhr area and possible branch to PL)—FR–ES

– Border crossing bottlenecks with infrastructural issues were identified

FP6 REORIENT—Implementing change in the European Railway System (2005–2007)

To assess progress in transferring European railways to an internationally integrated and standardised system

Nordic capitals [Oslo (NO)/Stockholm (SE)/Helsinki (FI)] to the South Eastern European Capitals [Bucharest (RO)/Sofia (BL)/Thessaloniki (GR)] via PL, AT, SL and HU

– Examining external driving forces for changes in rail liberalization

Source: (Ludvigsen, 2009; REORIENT, 2007)

– North–south corridor cross border socio-political dialogue assessment

– Nordic countries exhibit high levels of compliance with rail liberalization but without much intra-rail market competition;

– Rail in Nordic countries is not much of a rival to truckers

– New Member States lagged behind on legal compliance despite increasing number of permits granted to new entrants that compete fiercely with national incumbents

– Rail quality service divide between the Nordic and the South Eastern European countries

– Potential unitised goods commodity within the corridor

FP6 NEWOPERA—the rail freight dedicated lines concept (2005–2008)

To provide grounds for the establishment of new and existing lines, predominantly dedicated to freight

Conceptually across European rail network that refers to the global trade growth market analysis; in practice there were four corridors conceptually examined and one corridor [Berlin (DE)—Madrid (ES)] was taken as the pilot reference case

– Global and European trade growth patterns and rail freight market analysis

Source: (NEWOPERA, 2008)

– Longer and heavier train concept

– The international intermodal unaccompanied traffic is growing and a greater percentage of intermodal traffic is concentrated on well-defined axes

– Train operations and management software and training

– Increase rail freight market share means an increase in capacity, via either infrastructure investment or longer and heavier trains

– ERTMS (European Railway Traffic Management System) concept

– The need for standardization and integration of a system of cross border corridors including: gauge, axel-load, train length, maintenance strategy, capacity and priority management, emergency management, tolls and pricing, and ERTMS level 2 and 3 by 2015–2020

– Rail network model assignment

– There are benefits gained from dedicated rail freight corridors, especially medium to long term returns (estimated at over 5 % IRR) but an increase in infrastructure cost is inevitable

FP6 RETRACK—reorganization of transport network by advanced rail freight concepts (2006–2011)

To design, develop and implement a new and innovative trans-European rail freight service concept (market-oriented rail freight operators)

Rotterdam (NL) to Constanza (RO) and to the Black Sea area and Turkey; effectively the successful pilot corridor in operation is between Cologne (DE) and Gyor (HU)

– Terminals and cargo handling

Source: (RETRACK, 2012; Zunder et al., 2013)

– ICT training using railway management system

– Organizational separation between the train operating companies and the infrastructure management hinders private rail undertakings to complete efficiently in rail markets

– Common code of language between cross border rail freight staff

– A single standardised optimal terminal design can’t be suggested as there are many effective options to transfer cargo

– Successful rail freight operations by new entrant

– The importance of lead partner with experience in the freight transport and forwarding sector and with good operational links

FP6 CREAM—technical and operational innovations implemented on a European rail freight corridor (2007–2012)

To design and validate advanced customer-driven business models for railway undertakings and intermodal operators through analysis of the operational and logistic service providers

Rotterdam (NL)/Antwerp (BE) to Turkey (TR) via either the north bound corridor through Hungary (HU) or the south bound corridors through the Balkans; effectively the pilot successful corridor in operation is via the project partners established business (e.g. copper anode train between Bulgaria and Belgium)

– Quality Management System Manual

Source: (CREAM, 2012; Vleugel & Bal, 2012)

– Tracking of trains and waggons by GPS

– 28 % reduction of rail transport time between Ljubljana (SI)—Halkali (TR) through Quality Manual introduction

– Train monitoring system

– Putting interoperability into practice was often hampered by long border station stop times, long and inefficient turn-around times of locomotives due to low frequency of transports, insufficient availability of interoperable locomotives, long-lasting homologation procedures for locomotives, and inappropriate market conditions in some countries

– Transhipment for conventional semi-trailers

– Reach stackers transhipment innovation is less efficient than gantry crane operations

– Dual power locomotive

– Specifically designed semi-trailers for glass loads (floatrailer) can fill the rail freight market gap

FP7 TIGER—the co-modal role in industrialising the maritime traffic hinterland distribution (2009–2012)

To achieve a greater degree of effectiveness, efficiency and competitiveness on the rail freight network, from sea port to the hinterland (dry port)

Genoa Sea Port—RTE Rivalta (Dry Port)

– Testing rail freight capacity market scenario to anticipate huge influx of international logistics with increasing size of sea vessels (up to 18,000 TEU)

Source: (TIGER, 2012)

Port of Gioia Tauro/Port of Taranto—Bari—Interporto Bologna

– ICT/software package, e-management, e-customs programming and control system to improve Dry Ports

– The space in Europe is limited resource; sea terminals are the most expensive places to keep containers, so the connectivity between ports and the hinterland can improve cost effectiveness of freight movement

Port of Hamburg—Port of Bremerhaven

– The importance of Dry Ports connected by rail to the sea ports to anticipate a huge influx of containers from sea vessels

Mega hub spider web based in Hamburg and Munich

– Lengthening marginally the trains, by one or two wagons, saves transport costs and additional capacity is generated at very marginal cost

– Intermodal operators, who are competitors in the market place, joined forces in order to participate in train loading in the interests of the optimization of train costs

– Rail freight constitutes only a part of the entire customer’s supply chain and a regular industrialised shuttle service between sea ports and dry ports/mega hub/freight village would improve rail competitiveness

FP7 SUPERGREEN—supporting EU’s Freight Transport Logistics Action Plan on Green Corridors Issues (2010–2013)

To promote the development of European freight logistics in an environmentally friendly manner through performance benchmarking and evaluations on multimodal freight corridors

[1] Brenner: Rostock/Sassnitz (DE)—Palermo (IT)/Athens (GR)

– Freight stakeholders workshops to identify priority corridors

Source: (SUPERGREEN, 2013a, 2013b, 2013c, 2013d)

[2] Finis Terrae: Lisbon (PT)/Gijon (ES)—Paris/St Nazaire (FR)

– KPI survey on freight operators across priority corridors

– Establishing the benefit of priority ‘green’ corridors to address sustainable freight transportation

[3] Cloverleaf: Dublin (IE)/Glasgow (GB)—Duisburg (DE)

– Freight stakeholders interviews in response to technological challenge in greening freight transportation

– Identification of bottlenecks and priority technological deployments across the priority corridors

[4] Edelweiss: St Petersburg (RU)/Helsinki (FI)/Oslo (NO)/Stockholm (SE)—Genoa (IT)

– Green corridors handbooks to support freight stakeholders (notably logistics business community) and policy makers in addressing sustainable freight transport through governance

[5] Nureyev: St Petersburg—Moscow (RU) and Klaipeda (LT)—Minsk (BY)

– Research and Development (R&D) recommendations, for all modes of transport, to improve connectivity and interoperability of priority corridors

[6] Strauss: Bratislava (SK)—Rotterdam (NL)/Paris (FR)

– Policy recommendations to prioritise investments on the state-of-the-art transportation technologies for all modes of transport across the priority corridors

[7] Two seas: Hamburg (DE)—Athens (GR)

– Bringing the economic, social, and environmental benefit of priority corridors to the implementation of the Core Network Policy, promoted by the TEN-T function

[8] Mare Nostrum: Algeciras (ES)—Lyon (FR)

[9] Silk way: Shanghai (CN)—Le Havre (FR)/Rotterdam (NL)/Hamburg (DE)/Gdansk (PL)

  1. Note: for country code definition please see: http//countrycode.org

Appendix 2: Selected Reviewed Framework Programme Projects Linked to Rail and Logistics

No

FP

Project acronym

Project name

Electronic reference where available

1

4

EUFRANET

Improving the Competitiveness of Rail Freight Services

http://www.transport-research.info/Upload/Documents/200310/eufranet.pdf

2

4

HISPEEDMIX

High Speed Freight on the European High Speed Railway Network

http://www.transport-research.info/Upload/Documents/200310/hispeedmix.pdf

3

4

INTELFRET

Intelligent Freight Train

http://www.transport-research.info/Upload/Documents/200310/intelfret.pdf

4

4

FIRE

Freight Information in the Railway Environment

http://www.transport-research.info/Upload/Documents/200310/fire.pdf

5

4

OPTIRAILS

Optimization of traffic through the European Rail Traffic Management Systems

http://www.transport-research.info/Upload/Documents/200310/optirails.pdf

6

5

EDIP

On-board radio-based control of multiple locomotive freight trains for trans-European operation

n/a

7

5

PROMAIN

Progress in Maintenance and Management of Railway Infrastructure

n/a

8

5

CARGOSPEED

Cargo rail road interchange at speed

http://www.transport-research.info/Upload/Documents/200607/20060727_143123_02411_CARGOSPEED_Final_Report.pdf

9

5

IN.HO.TRA

Interoperable intermodal horizontal transhipment

http://www.transport-research.info/Upload/Documents/200607/20060727_150345_76487_INHOTRA_Final_Report.pdf

10

5

BESTUFS

Best urban freight solutions

http://www.transport-research.info/Upload/Documents/200608/20060821_161755_24060_BESTUFS%20Best%20Practice.pdf

11

5

CITYFREIGHT

Inter- and intra- urban freight distribution networks

n/a

12

6

BRAVO

Brenner rail freight action strategy aimed at achieving a sustainable increase of intermodal transport volume

http://www.transport-research.info/Upload/Documents/201010/20101007_161556_82086_BRAVO%20-%20Final%20Report.pdf

13

6

TREND

Implementation of change in the European rail freight area

http://www.transport-research.info/Upload/Documents/201010/20101004_214444_36830_Trend_B7-brochure_Results_and_Recommendations.pdf

14

6

REORIENT

Implementing change in the European Railway System

http://www.transport-research.info/Upload/Documents/200904/20090420_122526_74196_Reorient%20Publishable%20Final%20Activity%20Report.pdf

15

6

NEWOPERA

The rail freight dedicated lines concept

http://www.transport-research.info/Upload/Documents/201301/20130116_143319_35717_web_newopera2.pdf

16

6

RETRACK

Reorganization of transport networks by advanced rail freight concept

http://www.transport-research.info/Upload/Documents/201208/20120801_133828_14885_Retrack_D7.3.pdf

17

6

CREAM

Technical and operational innovations implemented on a European rail freight corridor

http://www.transport-research.info/Upload/Documents/201207/20120710_095633_84456_CREAM(FP6-038634)_Publishable-Final-Activity-Report_07-2012.pdf

18

6

FastRCargo

Fast transhipment equipment and novel methods for Rail Cargo in Europe

n/a

19

6

CHINOS

Container handling in intermodal nodes—optimal and secure

http://www.transport-research.info/Upload/Documents/201203/20120313_153302_17791_CHINOS%20Final%20Report_final.D0.4.pdf

20

6

TRIMOTRANS

Development of new intermodal loading units and dedicated adaptors for the trimodal transport of bulk materials in Europe

n/a

21

6

ISTU

Integrated Standard Transport Unit for self-guided freight container transportation systems on rail

n/a

22

6

INTERGAUGE

Interoperability, security and safety of goods movement with 1,435 and 1,520 (1,524) mm track gauge railways: new technology in freight transport including hazardous products

n/a

23

6

CAESAR

Coordination action for the European strategic agenda of research on intermodalism and logistics

n/a

24

6

PROMIT

Promote innovative intermodal freight transport

n/a

25

6

TRANS-TOOLS

Tools for transport forecasting and scenario testing

http://www.transport-research.info/Upload/Documents/201003/20100304_172116_94411_TRANSTOOLS%20-%20Final%20Report.pdf

26

7

BE-LOGIC

Benchmarking logistics and co-modality to improve the efficiency within and across different modes of transport and to support the development of a quality logistics system

http://www.transport-research.info/Upload/Documents/201203/20120330_180131_96883_BE%20LOGIC_final_report_en_v04_publishable.pdf

27

7

TIGER

The co-modal role in industrialising the maritime traffic hinterland distribution

n/a

28

7

ERRAC Roadmap

Coordinating rail research activity

http://www.transport-research.info/Upload/Documents/201204/20120404_120654_619_errac_freight_roadmap_2011_final_draft_version.pdf

29

7

SPECTRUM

Solutions and processes to enhance the competitiveness of transport by rail in unexploited markets

n/a http://www.spectrumrail.info/

30

7

MARATHON

Make rail the hope for protecting nature

n/a http://www.marathon-project.eu/

31

7

CLEANER-D

Clean European Rail Diesel

http://www.cleaner-d.eu/deliverables.aspx

32

7

SUPERGREEN

Supporting EU’s Freight Transport Logistics Action Plan on Green Corridors Issues

http://www.supergreenproject.eu/

33

7

SUSTRAIL

The sustainable freight railway: designing freight vehicle track system for higher delivered tonnage with improved availability at reduced cost

n/a http://www.sustrail.eu/

34

7

D-RAIL

Development of the future rail freight system to reduce the occurrences and impact of derailment

n/a http://d-rail-project.eu/

35

7

LOGMAN

Logistics and Manufacturing trends and sustainable transport

http://www.transport-research.info/Upload/Documents/201204/20120404_170607_2733_LOGMAN_D6_final.pdf

36

7

FREIGHTVISION

Sustainable European Freight Transport 2050

http://www.transport-research.info/web/projects/project_details.cfm?id=36661

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Aditjandra, P.T., Zunder, T.H., Islam, D.M.Z., Palacin, R. (2016). Green Rail Transportation: Improving Rail Freight to Support Green Corridors. In: Psaraftis, H. (eds) Green Transportation Logistics. International Series in Operations Research & Management Science, vol 226. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17175-3_12

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