L’ouverture à la concurrence du transport de fret ferroviaire en Europe entraîne des évolutions de structures significatives. La SNCF - opérateur historique – doit engager une mutation sans précédent. De nouveaux opérateurs s’implantent en France et doivent recruter et former du personnel. Dans un premier temps, le fonctionnement de ces nouveaux acteurs s’effectue principalement grâce à du personnel retraité de la SNCF. On assiste également à la création d’Opérateurs Ferroviaires de Proximité (OFP). Ces entités, généralement de petite taille, viennent compléter le travail effectué par les entreprises ferroviaires sur des dessertes terminales. Les OFP ont également besoin de compétences ferroviaires. Notre recherche porte donc sur les moyens nécessaires pour construire des compétences ferroviaires dans le respect des principes de sécurité et en intégrant le fonctionnement spécifique des structures OFP. La création d’une structure virtuelle peut contribuer à l’identification et la construction de compétences ferroviaires. / The opening to compétition of rail freight in Europe leads to significant changes in structures. The SNCF, incumbent, must commit unprecedented change. New operators setting up in France and need to recruit and train staff. At first, these new operators mainly use SNCF retired staff. Furthermore, Short Lines establishing are observed. These entities, generally small, complement the work of railway undertakings for the last kilometres. Short Lines also need skills rail. Our research focuses on necessary means to acquire skills rail in accordance with safety principles and by working according to Short Lines specific operating. Virtual structure creation can help skills rail identification and définition.

The Master's thesis 'The liberalization of the European railways market' explains the process of infrastructure and management separation. The main goal of this thesis is to analyze the liberalization process of the rail freight market in Europe. This is achieved by causal and relational analysis, which provides profound insights into the current and historical liberalization of the rail freight market. The secondary aim of this thesis is to apply the analysis of the rail freight market in Slovakia so as to explore the implementation of liberalization rules. The thesis concludes with a brief analysis of the competitiveness of the Slovakian rail freight market today.

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.

This thesis addresses integrated challenges within the global supply chain and intercontinental rail freight transport, establishing the foundation for a new research area. First, this thesis focuses on the development of unified SCOR-Rail Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for intercontinental rail freight transport, as well as initial analysis on Eurasian rail freight. It also proposes various rail supply chain strategies to differentiate rail services, including efficient, continuous replenishment, and responsive rail supply chain strategies that support market segmentation and service differentiation. The proposed Integrated Tactical Planning Method (ITPM) is a supply chain-oriented planning approach for intercontinental rail freight transport. It considers the intercontinental rail freight network's complexities, such as multiple border crossings and transshipments at border crossing terminals, the unique characteristics of different train lengths across different rail systems, as well as multiple stakeholders such as terminals, railway undertakings, infrastructure providers, and shippers and forwarders. ITPM offers optimization models (I-FSND and I-SSND) that simultaneously account for both the supply chain and rail system sides. Both models simulate the complexities of intercontinental rail freight operations. The I-FSND model calculates the train service frequency on each route during the planning period, whereas the I-SSND model considers the synchronization of each order at border-crossing terminals across different rail systems. Furthermore, both models include a rejection mechanism and consider transit time differences on the same arc for the main transit, with the I-SSND model determining the duration time of each order at terminals. In the I-FSND model, a weighted goal programming method optimizes resource allocation, balancing service quality, profit, total number of accepted containers through the network, and border crossing terminals' capacity deficiency. The potential capacity deficiencies—information is useful when making future investment decisions. The ITPM is a powerful tool for intercontinental rail freight planners, the proposed optimization models I-FSND and I-SSND ensure more efficient utilization of resources while simultaneously satisfying heterogeneous transport service requirements of the supply chain. Rail planners can employ the I-FSND model for network capacity analysis across various scenarios, especially when the specific timetable of train services is not a primary concern, while I-SSND model could be used to more operational analysis. Furthermore, ITPM is not only applicable to intercontinental rail freight, but also to rail freight transport networks with multiple border crossings, such as the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN). The initial application of these models in Eurasian rail freight shows promising potential for broader implementation in intercontinental rail freight transport, particularly in creating new business opportunities to meet the diverse transport demands of the supply chain.:1 Intercontinental rail freight transport 1 1.1 Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.1.1 Development of intercontinental rail freight transport . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.1.2 Need for a supply chain-oriented planning method for intercontinental rail freight transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.2 Intercontinental rail freight planning problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 1.2.1 Limitations of current rail planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 1.2.2 Intercontinental rail freight transport in supply chain planning . . . . . . 9 1.2.3 Scientific gaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 1.3 Main contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 1.4 Thesis outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 1.5 Collaborations in the thesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 2 Service quality assessment of intercontinental rail transport 20 2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 2.2 Existing research in international freight rail transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 2.2.1 Stakeholders and processes of international rail transport . . . . . . . . 23 2.2.2 International rail services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 2.2.3 Current performance measurement of rail transport . . . . . . . . . . . 26 2.2.4 Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 2.3 Development of SCOR-Rail KPIs for international rail services . . . . . . . . . . . 28 2.3.1 Reliability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 2.3.2 Responsiveness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 2.3.3 Flexibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 2.3.4 Cost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 2.3.5 Asset efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 2.4 Initial assessment of Eurasian rail transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 2.4.1 Reliability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 2.4.2 Responsiveness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 2.4.3 Flexibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 2.4.4 Asset efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 2.4.5 Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 2.5 Improvement measures of current Eurasian rail transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 2.5.1 Service differentiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 2.5.2 Priority rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 2.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 3 Heterogeneous rail supply chain strategies 48 3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 3.2 Existing research on rail service differentiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 3.3 Development of railway supply chain strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 3.3.1 Efficient RSC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 3.3.2 Continuous replenishment RSC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 3.3.3 Responsive RSC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 3.4 International rail service differentiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 3.5 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 3.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 4 Integrated tactical planning method 62 4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 4.2 Existing research on information integration in rail transport . . . . . . . . . . . 65 4.3 Information integration in international rail freight transport . . . . . . . . . . . 67 4.3.1 Information quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 4.3.2 Information integration phases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 4.3.3 Information evolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 4.4 Hierarchical information integration in rail planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 4.5 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 4.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 5 Integrated planning of intercontinental rail freight transport with I-FSND model 77 5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 5.2 Literature review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 5.2.1 Basics of rail planning and SND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 5.2.2 SND in freight transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 5.2.3 Research gaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 5.2.4 Our contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 5.3 Problem Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 5.4 Mathematical Modelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 5.4.1 Notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 5.4.2 I-FSND model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 5.4.3 Weighted goal programming method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 5.5 Case study: Eurasian rail freight transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 5.5.1 Experimental setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 5.5.2 Scenarios generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 5.6 Results and discussions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 5.6.1 Single goal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 5.6.2 Multiple goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 5.6.3 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 5.7 Conclusion and future directions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 6 Scheduled service network design for intercontinental rail freight transport 109 6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 6.2 Literature Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 6.2.1 Intercontinental freight transport-Eurasian rail freight transport . . . . . 113 6.2.2 SSND in freight transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 6.2.3 Research gaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 6.3 Mathematical modelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 6.3.1 Problem description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 6.3.2 Generation of the time-space network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 6.3.3 Mathematical formulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 6.4 Computational Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 6.4.1 Construction of test instances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 6.4.2 Synchronization of orders at border crossing terminals . . . . . . . . . . 127 6.4.3 Effects of differentiating train services during main transit . . . . . . . . 129 6.4.4 Effects of delay tolerance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 6.4.5 Impact of border crossing time of European borders . . . . . . . . . . . 134 6.5 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 6.6 Conclusion and future directions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 7 Conclusion and future directions 140 7.1 Main conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 7.2 Recommendations for practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 7.3 Further Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 Bibliography 148 Summary 168

This study aims to model a regional rail based intermodal transport system and to examine the feasibility of it through a case study for a shipper of daily consumables distributing in an urban area and to evaluate it regarding cost and emissions. The idea of an intermodal line train is that of making intermediate stops along the route thus enabling the coverage of a larger market area than conventional intermodal services, hence reducing the high cost associated with feeder transports, the congestion on the road network and generated externalities. The results of the case study indicate that the most critical parameters for the feasibility of such a system are the loading space utilization of the train and the cost for terminal handling. / <p>QC 20130531</p> / Regional kombitransportsystem i Mälardalen

The thesis focuses on comparison of road and rail freight in the South Bohemia rogion. The subjects of comparison were the ČSAD Jihotrans and the CD Cargo companies. The thesis consists of three parts: 1. transport of commodity {--} raw wood (round timber) by CD Cargo, 2. regular (daily) transport by ČSAD Jihotrans, 3. transport of cars by both companies and treir comparison. The main criterions are: time, systém of transport ordering, price and additional services provided. The aim was to use the services of both companies and to compare them from the viewpoint of a customer. From the results of the practical part of the thesis and after overall comparison of all the criterions I can conclude that road freight is more advantageous for the customers. However, we should not leave out of consideration the potentials of both types of cargo transport. Rail freight is of key importance in high-volume international cargo transport with a high percentage share in the transport of cars as well as of other commodities. Rail freight also better corresponds to the high requirements of the society on a sensitive approach of the companies to enviroment.

The dissertation has focused its attention on rail freight transport in the EU where it tried to identify trends that have accompanied that transport in the last decades. The identified trends are: intermodality, interoperability, creation of railway corridors and harmonization of legal norms for transport of goods. Each trend has been judged from the perspective of the so-called "common transport policy". The complexity of the analyzed environment as well as the interest in the depiction of the situation in the Czech Republic have led to the setting of three goals and three scientific questions. The result of the author's scientific investigation is a completely original work that should contribute to better understanding of changes of structural-systemic nature that happen in the rail cargo transport in the territory of the EU. Such a work is also an evaluating mirror for the reform of the railway sector undertaken by the same institution.

Godstransporter på väg förväntas öka avsevärt i framtiden om inga åtgärder vidtas. Politiska beslutfattare är medvetna om att situationen inte är hållbar och föreslår en bättre användning av alternativa transporter, vilket innefattar järnvägstransporter i en intermodal transport. Genom ett intermodalt system går det att uppnå kostnadsbesparingar och ett högre nyttjande av järnvägstransporter eftersom intermodala transporter möjliggör kombinationen av de specifika fördelar som varje transportslag har. Denna studie undersöker befintliga problem med implementeringen av intermodala transporter och vad det finns för alternativa lösningar som potentiellt kan främja intermodala transporter. Studien tar utgångspunkt i tidigare forskning om intermodala transporter och empirisk insamlat material från intervjupersoner inom branschen samt relevant data från rapporter. Det framkommer problem vid omlastningen och vid framkomligheten på järnvägen vilket har en negativ påverkan på kostnaden, tillförlitligheten samt snabbheten av transporten. Det framkommer även att flera transportrelationer och en högre frekvens av tjänster är en förutsättning för att intermodala transporter ska kunna producera kortare transporttider. Utmaningen med flera transportförhållanden i Sverige har varit att nyttjandegraden vid terminaler har varit låg eftersom det inte finns ett tillräckligt högt flöde mellan dessa relationer för att skapa en lönsamhet. Tågoperatörer anser att en högre hastighet och en högre lastvikt skulle innebära en ökad konkurrenskraft på marknaden. En högre hastighet och en högre lastvikt skulle även innebära en högre framkomlighet och en större mängd gods per transport. Omlastningen skulle dock fortfarande påverka tillförlitligheten och flexibiliteten negativt. Studien har undersökt Flexiwaggon som en alternativ intermodal transportlösning som potentiellt kan främja intermodala transporter. Flexiwaggon är likt den alternativa transportlösningen RoLa vars vision är att flytta vägtransporter till järnvägen. Gemensamt för båda lösningar är att främja användandet av intermodala transporter. Flexiwaggon visar potential vid omlastningen på grund av flexibiliteten genom den automatiserade omlastningstekniken. Detta betyder potentiellt besparande på terminal, personal och tillhörande omlastning utrustning. Det som talar emot Flexiwaggon är investeringskostnaden av vagnlösningen. Tågoperatörer investerar ofta i hela tågsätt och skulle behöva byta ut sitt befintliga tågsätt vilket minskar tågoperatörernas incitament för en alternativ intermodal transportlösning som Flexiwaggon eftersom kostnaden blir hög. / Road freight transport is expected to increase significantly in the future if no action is taken. Policymakers are aware that the situation is not sustainable and propose better use of alternative transport, which includes rail transport in intermodal transport. An intermodal system makes it possible to achieve cost savings and higher use of rail transport, as intermodal transport enables the combination of the specific advantages of each mode of transport. This study examines existing problems with the implementation of intermodal transport and what alternative solutions exist that could potentially promote intermodal transport. The study is based on previous research on intermodal transport and empirical collected material from interviewees in the industry as well as relevant data from reports. Problems emerge during transhipment and accessibility on the railway, which has a negative impact on the cost, reliability and speed of transport. It also emerges that several transport relationships and a higher frequency of services are a prerequisite for intermodal transport to produce shorter transport times. The challenge with several transport conditions in Sweden has been that the utilization rate at terminals has been low because there is not a sufficiently high flow between these relationships to create profitability. Train operators believe that a higher speed and a higher load weight would mean increased competitiveness in the market. A higher speed and a higher load weight would also mean greater accessibility and a greater amount of goods per transport. However, the transshipment would still have a negative impact on reliability and flexibility. The study has investigated Flexiwaggon as an alternative intermodal transport solution that could potentially promote intermodal transport. Flexiwaggon is similar to the alternative transport solution RoLa whose vision is to move road transport to the railway. Common to both solutions is to promote the use of intermodal transport. Flexiwaggon shows potential in transhipment due to the flexibility of automated transhipment technology. This means potential saving on terminal, personnel and associated transhipment equipment. What speaks against Flexiwaggon is the investment cost of the wagon solution. Train operators often invest in entire trainsets and would need to replace their existing trainset, reducing train operators' incentives for an alternative intermodal transport solution such as Flexiwaggon as the cost is high.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:48:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Camila Sapetti Bertoche de Lima.pdf: 445233 bytes, checksum: a3e6c8afa91e0c1575433fc7cee805d7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-11-07 / This work aims to study the sub-sector rail freight in Brazil, between pre and postprivatization of the railway companies belonging to the Union, wich occurred in the 1990s. The study plan includes the process and results of privatization and regulation in the other countries, whose railroad has a key role in the transport matrix. Search finally assess whether the outcome of privatization was not satisfactory or for strengthening the sub-sector rail freight in Brazil / Este trabalho tem como objetivo estudar o subsetor de transporte ferroviário de cargas no Brasil, no período entre a pré e a pós-privatização das empresas ferroviárias pertencentes à União, ocorrida na década de 1990. O plano de estudo contempla o processo e os resultados das privatizações do subsetor, pesquisa de referências em modelos de privatização e regulação de outros países, cujo modal ferroviário tem um papel fundamental na matriz de transportes. Busca enfim avaliar se o resultado das privatizações foi ou não satisfatório para o fortalecimento do subsetor ferroviário de cargas no Brasil

After reviewing land based freight growth trends nationally and internationally, this thesis discusses the main parameters governing fuel consumption, as well as past approaches in modelling road and rail energy consumption. Past work on comparing these two main modes is also reviewed here. The review included ways of estimating energy consumption of a complete freight task i.e., from origin to destination. Mathematical models estimating modal energy consumption are presented in this thesis. Modal energy consumption is a complex function to be approximated in practice due to numerous variables affecting their outcome. Energy demands are particularly sensitive to changes in vehicle characteristics such as mass and size; route parameters such as grade and curvature; traffic conditions such as level of congestion; and less sensitive to ambient conditions, such as temperature and altitude. There is a large set of energy estimation models available to transportation planners. Unfortunately, unless simple relationships are established for energy estimation and modal comparison, their application in freight movement planning and corridor development becomes computationally prohibitive. This thesis describes the development of a modal freight energy comparison tool to quantify the energy advantage from mode choice, corridor development and vehicle types and loading improvements. The thesis also describes the used modelling processes and the trade-offs between model complexity and data quality. The tool developed in this thesis is based on well established relationships between energy consumption and traffic flow, route and vehicle operating characteristics for road freight movement. The rail freight component was developed from equations of motion together with parameters obtained from past studies. The relationships have been enhanced to fit the purpose of corridor level comparative analysis. The comparison tool has been implemented using a spreadsheet based approach developed specifically to calculate the total door to door energy consumption for given task options. A series of linked sheets enable the user to: specify all necessary inputs; estimate road and rail energy by trip segment. The outputs consist of trip segment energy demand and total energy efficiency of each option. A case study approach, for aiding in model development and testing, is presented. Toowoomba second range crossing in Southern Queensland, Australia (section between below Postman's Ridge and Gowrie Junction) was selected. Four options considered include existing and proposed road and rail corridors. The existing rail and road corridors could be taken as a typical poor case, with very high grades and sharp curvatures. The proposed new road section has a relaxed curvature and gradient. The section of proposed rail corridor, under consideration here, still contains a high grade section. However, the proposed track length is considerably shorter than the base-case. The new proposed train alignment was found as the most efficient mode and the existing trains as the least efficient mode when measured based on absolute expected fuel gain (litres/tonnage of freight moved). This could be attributed to the improvement in curvature and load carrying capacity. However, when the options are compared in terms of litres/1000 NTK, the new train option did not show a significant advantage. Furthermore, the developed model was applied on some simulated cases to test the functionality of other aspects of the model. The total door-to-door energy consumption and the efficiency were compared for all the simulated cases. It showed that the energy efficiency of scenarios varies exponentially with the variation in the ratio of road pickup and delivery legs to the rail line-haul length. In general, energy efficiency of the intermodal options was found to be better unless the best case of the road and the worst case of intermodal option was compared. The modelling approaches presented in the thesis and the comparison model developed in this study could be used for several purposes namely: to assess the energy (and hence greenhouse gas) implications of specific modal freight movements; to aid in the economic and environmental evaluation of transport options; and to assess the potential for energy efficiency gains from vehicle and infrastructure improvements. A number of suggested improvements to the model are also discussed.