The document discusses the operational efficiency and viability of freight movement by trains, focusing on key performance indicators (KPIs) and productivity measures for railroads. It emphasizes the importance of technical and organizational improvements to enhance the rail freight market's profitability and capacity. Additionally, the document outlines how rail freight corridors are managed to ensure punctuality and traffic performance, while addressing factors that influence capacity.

1. Operational efficiency and viability of movement of
goods by trains
Marshalling YARD for freight movement by Fright
Trains

2. Introduction
Discussion
Paper 2015 •
12
Dejan
Makovsek,
Vincent
Benezech
and Stephen
Perkins
International
Transport
Forum,
Paris,
France
 The International Transport Forum
has produced a series of reports
and discussion papers addressing
the interrelated issues of railway
structure and performance.
 Efficiency entails maximizing the
outputs from a set of inputs
(technical efficiency) or creating an
optimal mix of inputs to maximize
output (allocative efficiency

3. Is There a Simple Approach to Assessing Railway
Efficiency?
Discussion
Paper 2015 •
12
Dejan
Makovsek,
Vincent
Benezech
and Stephen
Perkins
International
Transport
Forum,
Paris,
France
 The simplest approach would be to derive key
performance indicators (KPIs) from published
data. Thompson and Bente (2014)
 A basic but balanced score card of railway efficiency
that would consist of six types of indicators (Bente &
Thompson 2014):
 system scope;
 asset utilisation;
 human resource utilisation;
 operational performance;
 financial performance;
 customer-centric service quality.

4. Best Operating Industrial Ratio
Discussion
Paper 2015 •
12
Dejan
Makovsek,
Vincent
Benezech
and Stephen
Perkins
International
Transport
Forum,
Paris,
France
 "Better output per employee, more efficient
utilization of infrastructure, and improved
 locomotive fuel efficiency helped freight
railroads attain their best industry operating
ratio (78.6%) since World War II. The
resulting financial performance, which
included a return on equity of 11.3 percent
and a return on investment of 10.2%, was a
welcome and long-sought
 improvement after a disappointing record
over the last forty years.

5. Approaches to enlarge the rail freight market
and improve profitability
Activity-
Based Rail
Freight
Costing
By Gerhard
Troche
Stockholm,
Feb 2009
 Measures on the
technical/operational level and
those on organizational/ political
level are often to some extent
interconnected with each other. The
latter are important when it comes
to implementing.
Technical improvements refer to
changes in the physical resources
in the form of wagons, locomotives,
etc.

6. Approaches to enlarge the rail freight market
and improve profitability
Activity-
Based Rail
Freight
Costing
By
Gerhard
Troche
Stockholm
Feb 2009
 Operational improvements refer to
how the physical resources are
deployed,
 for example how the trains run
(routes, speeds, train formation,
train lengths, stopping pattern, etc.).

7. Operation , Maintenance, Management
European
Commission
Function of
Infrastructure
Managers
Planning &
Development
To create New
Capacity
Production&
Allocation of
capacity
Pricing &
Marketing of
train Path
Traffic
Management
& Controll
Net work
Modernisatio
n
Net work
Maintenanc
e

8. The Rail Freight Corridors – promoting high quality freight
services
European
Commission
 Rail Freight Corridor sets up
common punctuality targets for
freight trains, defines and applies
joint traffic management and priority
rules in order to ensure that these
targets are
 met, coordinates movement and
maintenance works along the
corridor to reduce traffic disruptions
and monitors traffic performance
and customer satisfaction.

9. Capacity of Rail freight Corridor
National Rail
Freight
Infrastructur
e Capacity
and
Investment
Study
 The capacity of rail corridors is determined
by a large number of factors, including the
 number of tracks, the frequency and length
of sidings, the capacity of the yards and
 terminals along a corridor to receive the
traffic, the type of control systems, the
terrain,the mix of train types, the power of
the locomotives, track speed, and
individual

10. Capacity of Rail freight Corridor
National Rail
Freight
Infrastructur
e Capacity
and
Investment
Study
 railroad operating practices.
Complete, consistent, and current
information on all these factors was
not available.
 The capacity of the corridor was
estimated using only the three
dominant factors (e.g., number of
tracks, type of signal system, and
mix of train types

11. Average Capacities of Archetypical Rail Corridors
Trains per Day
Source:
Class I
railroads’
data
aggregated
by
Cambridge
Systematics,
Inc.
Number of
Tracks
Type of
Control
Trains Per Day
Practical
Maximum If
Single Train
Type
Uses
Corridor**
Practical
Maximum If
Multiple
Train Types
Use
Corridor*
1 ABS 25 18

12. Volume-to-Capacity Ratios and Level of Service (LOS)
Grades
Source:
Cambridge
Systematics,
Inc.
LOS Grade Description Volume/Cap
acity Ratio
D Near
Capacity
Heavy train
flow with
moderate
capacity to
accommodat
e
maintenance
and recover
from
incidents
0.7 to 0.8
Corridors operating at LOS D are operating near capacity;
they carry heavy train flows with moderate capacity to
accommodate maintenance and recover from incidents.

13. Practical Capacity in Trains per Day
Source:
Class I
railroads’
data
aggregated
by
Cambridge
Systematics,
Inc.
No OF tracks Conrtol Lower Bound Upper Bound
1 ABS 18 25

14. T o be
continued