Abstract

Agriculture remains an important economic sector in Africa, employing a large share of the labor force and earning foreign exchange. Among others, transport connectivity has long been a crucial constraint in Africa. In theory, railways have a particularly important role to play in shipping freight and passengers at low cost. However, most African railways were in virtual bankruptcy by the 1990s. Using a large sample of data comprised of more than 190,000 households over eight years in Ethiopia, the paper estimates the impacts of rail transport on agricultural production. Methodologically, the paper takes advantage of the historical event that a major rail line connecting the country to the regional hub, the Port of Djibouti, was abandoned in the 2000s. With spatially highly disaggregated fixed effects and instrumental variables incorporated, an agricultural production function is estimated. The elasticity with respect to port connectivity is estimated at 0.276. The use of fertilizer is also found to increase with transport cost reduction, supporting the fact that a large amount of fertilizer is imported to Ethiopia. Document type: Book

Abstract

Over the past decade, China has built 25,000 km of dedicated high-speed railway—more than the rest of the world combined. What can we learn from this remarkable experience? China’s High-Speed Rail Development examines the Chinese experience to draw lessons for countries considering investing in high-speed rail. The report scrutinizes the planning and delivery mechanisms that enabled the rapid construction of the high-speed rail system. It highlights the role of long-term planning, consistent plan execution, and a joint venture structure that ensures active participation of provincial and local governments in project planning and financing. Traffic on China’s high-speed trains has grown to 1.7 billion passengers a year. The study examines the characteristics of the markets for which high-speed rail is competitive in China. It discusses the pricing and service design considerations that go into making high-speed rail services competitive with other modes and factors such as good urban connectivity that make the service attractive to customers. One of the most remarkable aspects of the Chinese experience is the rapid pace of high-quality construction. The report looks at the role of strong capacity development within and cooperation among China Railway Corporation, rail manufacturers, universities, research institutions, laboratories, and engineering centers that allowed for rapid technological advancement and localization of technology. It describes the project delivery structures and incentives for delivering quality and timely results. Finally, the report analyzes the financial and economic sustainability of the investment in high-speed rail. It finds that a developing country can price high-speed rail services affordably and still achieve financial viability, but this requires very high passenger density. Economic viability similarly depends on high passenger density. Document type: Book

Abstract

The intent of the two competitive cities case studies is to highlight what institutions and strategies successful cities have relied on to spur economic development, under what conditions such success has occurred, and what lessons of this experience might be applicable to decision makers in other cities. This research was prepared by the Tokyo Development Learning Center (TDLC) under the auspices of the Social, Urban, Rural, and Resilience Global of the World Bank Group. Its objective is to create a knowledge base on what makes cities competitive, understand job creation at the city level, and capture the unique development experience of Japan for broad dissemination to development practitioners, government officials, academia and the private sector. The team would like to gratefully acknowledge the Government of Japan and its continued support of the Tokyo Development Learning Center (TDLC) program.

Abstract

TRA 2018, 7th Transport Research Arena, Vienne, AUTRICHE, 16-/04/2018 - 19/04/2018; Cet article présente un résumé de l'état de l'art réalisé pour le projet EU STARS sur l'utilisation d'EGNOS dans le domine ferroviaire. GNSS is expected to help the railway system to be modernized. However, such localization applications requires a high level of accuracy and safety that deserve to use the best potential of satellite-based technologies. The augmentation systems, as the satellite-based augmentation system EGNOS (European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service), helps to increase the nominal performance. One of the tasks of the EU STARS project deals with the study of the usability of EGNOS in railway environments. EGNOS has indeed been developed driven by the requirements of civil aviation safety procedures in conditions for signal reception that differ from the railway ones. In this paper, after introducing the needs and the basic principles of these systems, we describe the limitations caused by the specificities of railways and some solutions perspectives proposed by the project.

Abstract

Traffic is the most widespread source of environmental noise. Railway noise has become increasingly common in urban areas in the past few decades. Therefore environmental requirements for railway operations regarding noise are becoming very strict and will become even tighter in future. In the present paper we present actual track- based field test performed on Slovenian Railways. The significant noise reduction (up to 30dBA) was achieved by the application of CHFC material on the rail using CL-E1 top anti noise system. Der Verkehr ist die am weitesten verbreitete Quelle von Umgebungslärm. Eisenbahnlärm nahm in den letzten Jahrzehnten in städtischen Gebieten immer mehr zu. Aus diesem Grund wurden die Umweltanforderungen für den Bahnverkehr bezüglich des Lärms immer strenger und werden in der Zukunft noch höher. In der vorliegenden Arbeit stellen wir den tatsächlichen Track-basierten Feldversuch auf der Slowenischen Bahn dar. Die deutliche Lärmreduzierung (bis 30 dBA)wurde durch die Anwendung von CHFC-Material auf der Schiene mithilfe des Cl-E1 Antirauschsystems erreicht. Document type: Article

Abstract

Modal shift from road to rail for freight movements is a potential means by whichthe negative environmental and social impacts of such transport can be reduced. Assuch it features strongly in contemporary transport policies in Great Britain. Thisthesis examines the interactions between logistical structure and freight modalchoice, to determine the extent to which rail's mode share is likely to be increased.The research assesses the influence of recent logistical changes both withincompanies and along supply chains on mode choice and identifies the likelihood offuture changes resulting in greater rail usage. A combined approach involving a postal questionnaire survey and in-depth company interviews was adopted. Further,to consider the interactions between the supply of rail freight services and their levelof uptake, original databases of rail freight services at the disaggregated level havebeen constructed and analysed for the years 1991, 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000.The research thus provides a greater understanding of the importance of modalchoice in individual firms' logistical decision-making processes, as well as throughsupply chains from source to customer. Key logistical issues that have affected, andare likely to affect, mode choice are identified and utilised to assess the potential for rail. Significant potential for modal shift is found to exist though many obstaclesare also identified for many types of movement, relating to both supply- and demand-side factors. The importance of a coherent transport policy to deal withthese obstacles to allow rail freight to meet its potential is highlighted. Document type: Thesis

Abstract

The growth in container transport volumes, the increase in the size of ships and the concentration of flows through a limited number of port hubs require higher capacity on hinterland connections. Road transport now accounts for most of the connections between ports and hinterland areas in Europe, resulting in port congestion associated with delays, waiting lines and increased permanence of ships and cargo in the port. This translates into additional costs and a negative environmental impact. In most cases, the development of rail transport becomes part of the solution to this problem. The current study contributes to the development of the strategy of the Port of Valencia in order to increase the rail modal share for import/export cargo through the definition and feasibility analysis of an innovative Just-In-Time (JIT) Rail Shuttle service for a key port-hinterland corridor in Spain connecting Valencia with Zaragoza. The proposed solution aims to directly unload the containers from the ship and load them onto trains, in order to minimize the movement of containers at the terminal and to operate as an “air bridge” at the airports, so that the shuttle makes round trips within one day and the containers are loaded on the first available JIT rail service. In order to minimize the cost per unit transported the feasibility study includes designing the operational solution, service characteristics, the requirements of the information system and the definition of the business models needed for its implementation.

Abstract

In this study we calculate the private costs, marginal external costs, and degree of internalization for all modes in"br" Flanders for the period 2000-2014, with an outlook towards 2016. The private costs are the costs for the user."br" For road transport these include the vehicle purchase costs, insurances, maintenance, fuel costs, etc. For transport"br" services (bus, train, plane) this is the ticket price. Marginal external costs are the costs the user does not take into"br" account when deciding to make a trip. They are called marginal as we focus on the additional effect of that one"br" trip. We considered congestion, environment (air pollution and greenhouse gasses), noise, safety, infrastructure"br" wear & tear and health."br" The internalization of external costs determines the extent to which the user does take into account part of these"br" external costs via taxes and levies. In the case of full internalization, the user pays for all the costs he causes via"br" taxes and levies. Today, in most cases, the user does not pay the full costs he causes."br" Based on our calculations we assessed the evolution of the degree of internalization over time. Is Flanders"br" heading towards the “polluter pays principle”? Which steps are needed to evolve to a better pricing? We found"br" that over the years the level of internalisation is mainly driven by changes in external costs rather than by a"br" targeted adjustment of taxes. Recent changes in taxation such as the changes in the car registration tax, the yearly"br" road tax and the km charge for trucks did lead to an increase in internalisation, but we are still far from full"br" internalisation. Moreover, it would be better to differentiate taxes not only on environmental performance but"br" also on time and place. The levels of internalisation are also very different – not only between modes but also"br" within the road mode.

Abstract

International audience; We are looking into the evolution of cooperation and competition between airlines and railroads, in the context of rail deregulation, with the tools provided by network economics. After looking at the progress of rail deregulation in Europe, we describe the situation of air and rail in terms of cooperation (intermodality). We then examine the current strategies of airlines and railroads considered as networks industries. In this light, we then analyse their possible strategies in a context of rail deregulation, with a complete opening of rail markets. We conclude by assessing the possibility of emergence of multi-modal network operators.

Abstract

The European rail network is largely electrified, and rail emits far less CO₂ than equivalent travel by road or air. It accounts for only 0.4 % greenhouse gas emissions from EU transport, while all EU transport accounts for 25% of the EU’s total emissions. Additionally, rail is the only transport that between 1990 and 2017 has consistently reduced its emissions and energy consumption, while increasingly using renewable energy sources.

Following this green line, this article presents the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study of new generation trains, mainly based on lightweighted primary structures made of composite material (about 30-50% weight loss compared to conventional ones).

The composite materials are novelty in the railway sector. Their introduction brings a clear advantage from the point of view of train capacity or energy/infrastructure canon savings. However, it needs to be justified from the LCA point of view.

Two different stages are developed in this article. An LCA of the new prototypes (production, assembly, transport and use phase). It is completed with an LCA of conventional structures. The second phase presents a comparison between the environmental impact produce using CFRP materials or metallic materials at the end of a useful life (EoL) of a carbody.

The results indicates that, at EoL, the composite material would be more economically and environmentally attractive than the current materials.