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.