Presented by Dr John Nellthorp http://www.its.leeds.ac.uk/people/j.nellthorp at The Railway Engineers Forum technical seminar ‘Rail Freight – The way forward’ on the 15th June 2015 held at the IET, followed by a Parliamentary reception on the House of Lords Terrace.

1. Institute for Transport Studies
Infrastructure damage costs and access charging:
•New research on cost variability of infrastructure costs with
respect to damage characteristics of vehicles - The relative
cost of different damage mechanisms is not well
understood
•New approach combines engineering and statistical
methods - Research being developed to move research
from pilot to policy relevant stage
•Also new British and Swiss econometric studies on
renewals - expected to update CATRIN findings (currently
35% cost variability with track damage)
•Work to understand the effectiveness of existing access
charges in influencing the decisions of operators and rolling
stock firms with respect to ‘track friendly’ to inform the
design of more differentiated access charge systems
Benefits of SUSTRAIL (UK route) £ (at 2015 prices)
SUSTRAIL0 SUSTRAIL1 SUSTRAIL2
Infrastructure (vehicle only) (140kph)
Manager (IM) Net Benefit 0 28,197,865 19,497,750
Freight Operators
- intermodal Net Benefit 2,678,537 3,752,989 438,294
Freight Operators
- other Net Benefit 0 219,922 218,892
End Users
- intermodal Net Benefit 13,065,676 18,524,206 16,630,955
End Users
- other Net Benefit 0 1,559,543 997,880
3rd Parties Net Benefit 520,411 4,817,941 4,807,794
Path Capacity Benefits 0 0 23,550,000
Net Present Value (NPV) 16,264,623 57,072,466 66,141,565
Innovations in
vehicle-track system
↑availability ; ↓cost
Supply Conditions
Demand response (↑)
↑ Market share:
sustainable freight
Environmental footprint
– rail freight (↓)
More sustainable
European freight
Rail economics researchRail Freight Business Case and Economic Research
Freight market modelling:
•LEFT GB market model (2015/2030)
•Road/rail competition
•Price and quality responsive, ~8% increase in rail
freight mode share in SUSTRAIL
Research in SUSTRAIL was funded by the European Commission under Grant Agreement
no: 265740 FP7 - THEME [SST.2010.5.2-2.]. SUSTRAIL research was undertaken with
partners including Network Rail, Universities of Huddersfield, Sheffield, and Newcastle,
Lulea Tekniska Universitet, VTU Sofia, UP Madrid and TATA Steel.
Path capacity valuation:
•Benefits of improved capacity utilisation due to higher
freight speeds (140kph)
•Model estimated using ticket sales data & National
Rail Travel Survey data
•Rail capacity unlocked , valued at £14 per path km
‘SUSTRAIL’ Business case:
•Innovative intermodal wagons + upgraded track
(using premium rail steel)
•Win-win for all industry groups and third parties
− costs down for IM and operators
10.1% saving in track M&R, 11.8% saving
in wagon ownership & maintenance
− improved reliability and journey time
− strong freight user benefits
− ~8% shift to rail in container freight market
− strong environmental benefits (CO2 from road)
− large path capacity benefits on congested
networks
SUSTRAIL 0 –
vehicle
improvement
SUSTRAIL 1 –
vehicle and track
improvement
SUSTRAIL 2 –
vehicle track and
speed improvement
Vehicles within the
SUSTRAIL vehicle
class
10.4% 17.4% 15.2%
Other vehicles 0% 6.9% 4.8%
Access charge reduction from base in each of the SUSTRAIL scenarios,
due to track-friendly vehicles and resilient track
Freight & logistics innovation:
•Green Logistics research (supported by EPSRC/DfT
/TfL)
− decarbonising freight
− urban logistics & hubs - now in ‘TURBLOG’
− rail-road connectivity
•enhancement of freight modelling (e.g. LEFT and
TRANSTOOLS3)
www.its.leeds.ac.uk/research/groups/economics-and-discrete-choice/
www.its.leeds.ac.uk/research/themes/freight/