Future prospects on railway freight transportation : a particular view of the weight issue on intermodal trains

The present work analyses the issue of the deadweight in intermodal trains and states that this weight is excessive for the current and future intermodal transportation. In this way, the common intermodal units are considered light elements that would be more efficiently transported in lighter railway wagons. An analysis of the actual railway and intermodal market with important statistics’ inputs and trend forecasts is provided in order to demonstrate this affirmation. The work also addresses the issue of the length of the intermodal wagons and how this has an influence on their loading properties (loading schemes). It concludes that longer surfaces without interruptions lead to better loading arrangements that cover a broader spectrum of loading cases. The combination of these two concepts, longer and lighter wagons, crystalize in the form of VELWagon, which is an EU project that has been deeply analysed in this thesis. The VEL‐Wagon concept strives for longer loading surfaces with same or fewer wheels than regular wagons, resulting in lighter wagons for the intermodal transport. A non‐articulated 80 ft container wagon is analysed. Because of having fewer wheels per loading meter there is an increasing axle load that may have an influence on the infrastructure. Therefore an axle load extension would be interesting for light goods because it would permit to use more efficient wagons like VEL‐Wagon. Another important point analysed in this thesis is the loading gauge. The long wagons, with long distance between pivots, have an unfavourable condition when running the sharp curves by which the centre of the wagon is “overthrown” towards the curve centre, implying a loss of gauge. This could create some problems on small gauges, say G1 and GA but could be solved for GB and it will be no problem for GC. Finally several business case are presented and discussed, being the most remarkable a 5‐timeweek shuttle train that could save up to 500.000 € a year if using the VEL‐Wagon instead of regular intermodal wagons. The thesis leads to the confirmation of the working hypothesis, which states that: To achieve a better utilization of the track capacity, the trains and the wagons the loading length of these must be longer and at the same time with less or same number of axles. Paving the way for enunciating the challenge: The extension of the maximum axle load in European tracks, from 22,5 to 25 t and beyond, is a desired action that will benefit the light rail transports and will help to increase the competitiveness of freight railways against the road, leading to a more sustainable transport system