This paper attempts to portray the present unstable situation of handling passengers and freight inside Iran as well as to represent a clear view of the rail transport features that have given this mode of transport a special place among the transport system. In this paper the rate of fuel consumption as a main pivotal item has been evaluated as well as the amount and cost of fuel economized th...

In the context of combined road-rail freight transport, we study the integrated tactical planning of hub locations and the design of a frequency service network. We consider a number of real-world constraints such as multiple transshipments of requests at hubs, transport time limits for requests, request splitting, and outsourcing possibilities. To our knowledge, the combination of problem feat...

Six principles for operation of the rail part of intermodal rail freight transport systems are described: direct link, corridor, hub-and-spoke, connected hubs, static routes, and dynamic routes. The first part is a theoretical discussion of the characteristics of the transport network designs. The theory is then applied to intermodal freight transport by analysing how each transport network des...

The EU began railway reform in earnest around the turn of the century. Two ‘railway packages’ have meanwhile been adopted amounting to a series of directives and a third package has been proposed. A range of complementary initiatives has been undertaken or is underway. This BEEP Briefing inspects the main economic aspects of EU rail reform. After highlighting the dramatic loss of market share o...

Freight movements throughout the Mississippi Valley region are complicated by the presence of recurring congestion along the highway, rail, and port freight networks. This congestion has several deleterious effects on freight carriers, commuters, governments, and markets. State departments of transportation (DOTs) in the Mississippi Valley Freight Coalition are looking to identify the points of...

The centuries since the birth of the Industrial Revolution have seen a succession of increasingly sophisticated transport technologies, each offering improvements in speed, carrying capacity and/or operational flexibility. Having spent this time overcoming the physical barriers to freedom of movement imposed on us by the natural world, humanity now appears to face two immense, and related, chal...

Transshipment yards, where gantry cranes allow for an e cient transshipment of containers between di erent freight trains, are important entities in modern railway systems and facilitate the general shift from point-to-point transport to hub-and-spoke railway systems. Modern rail-rail transshipment yards accelerate container handling, so that multiple smaller trains with equal destination can b...

The North American freight railroad network is projected to experience rising transportation demand in the coming decades, leading to increased congestion along many rail corridors. Increased interest in expanded passenger service on shared rail corridors will also create additional capacity demand. However, the nation’s rail lines are still predominantly single track with passing sidings, maki...