The aim of the thesis is to analyse the status of the rail freight transport in Europe in the sense of its competitiveness on the transport market. The analysis is based on the identification of main barriers that characterise European rail freight and the extent of technological and legislative harmonisation across Europe. The status of the rail freight transport is also explored on the basis of the volume of goods transported by rail in European countries as well as on the comparison with road transport. In order to get the realistic idea about this issue the thesis focuses also on the main Czech rail carrier, ČD Cargo, a.s. and their realized transportations.

Rail Transport in the Czech Republic, European Transport Policy, Liberalization of the Transport Policy, International Bodies, Legislation, Rail Carrier, Leasing of railway wagons

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Rail wear can result in extensive costs for the track owner if it is not predicted and preventedin an efficient way. To limit these costs, one measure is to predict rail wear through wear simulations. The purpose with this work is to perform simulations of successive rail wear on the Swedish light rail line Tvärbanan in Stockholm, by means of the track-vehicle dynamics software GENSYS in combination with a wear calculation program developed in MATLAB. The simulation procedure is based on a methodology with a simulation set design, where the simulations to be performed are selected through a parametric study. The simulations include track-vehicle simulations, where the wheel-rail contact is modelled according to the Hertzian contact theory together with Kalker’s simplified theory (including the numerical algorithm FASTSIM). The results from the track-vehicle simulations serve as input to the wear calculations. When modelling rail wear Archard’s wear model has been used, including wear coefficients based on laboratory measurements. The measurements have been performed under dry conditions, so the wear coefficients under lubricated conditions (both natural and deliberate lubrication) are reduced by factors estimated by field observations. After the wear depth calculations the wear distribution is smoothed and the rail profile is updated. The simulation procedure continues with a new wear step as long as the desired tonnage is not attained. Four curves of Tvärbanan with different curve radii, ranging from 85 to 410 m, have beenstudied in this work. On three of the curves the high rail is deliberately lubricated, whereas no lubrication has been applied in the widest curve. The vehicle operating the light rail line is an articulated tram with two motor end bogies and one intermediate trailer bogie. The line was opened in August 1999 and extended in one direction one year later. Rail profile measurements have been carried out by SL since March 2002. The traffic tonnage at the selected sites from the opening of the line to the last measurement occasion (September2004) is at most 8.9 mega gross ton per track. The results of the rail wear prediction tool are evaluated by comparing worn-off area of the simulated rail profiles with that of the measured rail profiles. Simulated and measured resultsdo not agree too well, since the simulated rail wear is more extensive than the measured one, especially on the outer rail. However, the shapes of the simulated worn rail profiles are comparable to those of the measured rail profiles. / QC 20101123

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This dissertation proposes a framework in support of biomass supply chain network design. This framework relies in the use of trucks for short distance biomass transportation, and relies in the use of rail for long-haul, and high-volume transportation of densified biomass. A hub and spoke network design model is proposed for the case when biomass is shipped by rail. These models are created and solved for the following problems: 1) designing a biomass supply chain to deliver densified biomass to a coal fired power plant for coiring and 2) designing biomass-to-biorefinery supply chain using rail for long-haul, and high-volume shipment of densified biomass under economic, environmental, and social criteria. The first problem is modeled as a Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP). A Benders’ decomposition-based algorithm is developed to solve the MILP model because its large size makes it difficult to solve using CPLEX. The numerical analysis indicates that the total unit transportation cost from the farm to a coal plant is $36/ton. Numerical analysis also indicates that biomass cofiring is cost efficient compare to direct coal firing if the renewable energy production tax credit is applied and biomass is located within 75 miles from a coal plant. The second problem is also modeled as a MILP mode. This MILP identifies the number, capacity and location of biorefineries needed to make use of the biomass available in the region. A case study is created using data from a number of States in the Midwest USA. The numerical analysis show that 24.38%-26.12% of the target cellulosic biofuel set by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 can be met at delivery cost $4.01 to $4.02 per gallon. The numerical analysis also reveals the tradeoffs that exist among the economics, environmental impact, and social objectives of using densified biomass for production of biofuel. Finally, this dissertation presents a detailed analysis of the rail transportation cost for products that have similar physical characteristics to densified biomass and biofuel. A numbers of regression equations are developed in order to evaluate and quantify the impact of important factors on the unit transportation cost.

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High-speed rail (HSR) in most industrialized countries in Europe and Asia have proven profitable and increase GDP in primary, secondary and tertiary station locations, balance greenhouse gas emissions, maintain safety and temporal standards, and assuage traffic concerns of growing populations. The Metroliner’s short completion timeline and ability to demonstrate a successful product prior to appropriating or obligating funds propelled America’s passenger rail industry forward in congruence with establishing the Office of High-Speed Ground Transportation in 1965. However, the US’ rotating bipartisan political structure hinders hyper-expensive 20-year-long projects, as shown in California, Florida, and the Northeast Corridor (NEC). In contrast to this, China’s centralized government, dense city centers, and politically motivated expansion led to construction of the world’s largest HSR network with 37,900 kilometers of tracks in 2021 and 70,000 kilometers expected by 2035. While HSR in the US may be profitable in the NEC, governmental structure, infrastructure density, and high temporal and financial costs reduce plausibility for HSR despite proven positive effects.

The empty railcars repositioning strategy generates no income but is crucial for a good service quality, it should then satisfy two main objectives: fullling the customer demand and generating as little expense as possible. Moreover, because of breakdown or heavy traffic, variation on travel times happens to be the main cause of uncertainty in railroad scheduling and must be taken into account to suggest a robust planning. This thesis presents the linear program used in a prototype tool for the optimization of empty railcar repositioning strategy designed for the SNCF¹. The resulting schedule is computed with CPLEX and minimizes moving cost, delay and unfulllment penalties. Substitutions of railcar categories are also permitted and eventually penalized. In addition, uncertainty on travel times is handled by considering the expected cost of a move (regarding delay probability and possible penalties) and by adding slack periods at the end of moves. The robustness can be modulated through the use of a cursor. Finally, the model enforces a decision making process previously dened by the SNCF to ensure that the suggested planning can be easily grasped and trusted by users. Schedules have then been generated based on randomly generated data and simulated. Results show a potential saves of 10% on considered costs and a good range of use of the robustness cursor is suggested. Finally, paths for improvement of this prototype are proposed to meet the eventual schedulers' further needs in order to move forward the production of this tool at the company scale. ¹Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français (French National Railways) / Master of Science

This study will help better our understanding of the import-export processes in the U.S. It examines the challenges faced by US exporters and importers, and investigates an innovative solution to tackle these challenges. The dry port concept introduced by transportation geographers is discussed, and an intermodal rail costing model is used in determining whether this concept will prove to be a more sustainable and energy efficient system than what currently exists. / text