10 recipes to revitalize the freight railways

[Mediarail.be]

We had already talked in the past about the transformation of the industry and the causes that have degraded the railway as a largely minority transport. Rather than studying the past, it is now more interesting to look forward and to outline some solutions to revitalize rail freight. To transfer trucks on the train, to get freight wagons into warehouses and to fit into the logistics are possible actions under certain conditions, which it is always worth to remember.

An update with industry, specialized rail companies, rethinking railway technology, the massification of goods, ..well, 10 recipes to revitalize railways, a strictly private opinion. Read more :

http://mediarail.blogspot.be/2013/11/10-recipes-to-revitalize-freight.html

Mediarail.be

 

[Harlesden]

The problem with rail as a means of transporting goods is the fact that in many cases, it is not possible for a train to get reasonably close to where the goods are actually needed - due to the closure of many lines that were heavily used for freight 50-60 years ago.
The goods have to be offloaded into or onto trucks to complete their journey by road. Why use a third party to transport your goods most of the way (at considerable cost) when you can use your own vehicles to transport the goods the whole way, and remain in full control of exactly when they will be transported?

 

[edwin_m]

I'd put it slightly differently.

Most places that generate/receive bulk goods are already rail connected and rail has the vast majority of the bulk goods market - the type of market that generates whole trainloads from one place to another.

The rest of the freight market is indeed based around much smaller consignments, but having more railways to take them to their destinations isn't really going to help as rails's higher speed and economies of scale on the trunk haul are lost if the train needs to be split into micro-trains for numerous different places.

Intermodal is making inroads into this for the longer hauls, particularly maritime where a lot of containers start/finish at the port so the train has the advantage of bulk haulage at one end. We are starting to see the same thing in supermarket distribution, and it is thought that rail will become more competitive over shorter distances as road haulage is impeded by traffic congestion and limitations on drivers' working hours. However there is is a limit to it, and we aren't going to see low-volume rail freight terminals at every station like we used to.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Having attended planning sessions (trans - Europe) for many years - the railways ought to be able to make wagonload and semi-wagonload traffics profitable. (I was also a Speedlink UK Manager way back and sharply aware of economics and the competition)

What really kills it - is the tripping costs , Transipment costs , journey times and (especially in France) - quality of service and resource inflexibilty. Road haulage gets pretty much a free ride - even La Suisse has cut back on wagonload.

 

[Mediarail.be]

Wagonload can survive if it is given an automatic coupler, electric brakes + minimum manoeuvres. But that would make wagons much more expensive and that require for renters to very large investments. Time parking of wagonload is awful and it is estimated that they are only 3-4 trips loaded per month ! If we compare with a truck...

Only companies that fully manage their transportation can achieve efficiency with full trains, as Norfolk Line, LKW Walter, Ewals Cargo Care or Stobart Group. Stobart Group is also present on a completely forgotten sector by the railway : food retailing, except transport of mineral waters.

All logistics warehouses design are based on the trucking and rail is only in case of necessity, if the turnover of goods is important. The modal-shift is therefore a pure theory, since the last kilometers to the shops are necessarily done by trucks.

I have any example in the world when a mega shopping-center is directly delivered by rail...