Summary It is expected that in the process of meeting the climate policy goals, more transport will take place by rail. Single wagonload transport plays a crucial role as a direct competitor to road-based transport. The aim of this contribution is an evaluation of capacity correlated effects in a railway wagon routing network. Methods For this purpose, we developed a mathematical optimisation model. In order to be able to identify the effects and impacts of congestion we created several scenarios and evaluated each of them individually. Findings By conducting computational experiments we were able to identify various effects and draw conclusions about the impact. This work contributes to the optimisation of the most costefficient short-term rerouting of railway wagons in single wagonload transport.