European Reif project on rail freight transport, our focus on the state of the art goes on
To develop and update the regional transport model for Emilia-Romagna and use it to test possible actions to overcome the current bottlenecks affecting the rail freight network in the region but also in its connections with the national and trans-European rail network.
With this objective, ITL Foundation (Institute for Transport and Logistics) and Emilia-Romagna Region are working on pilot action 5 of the european Reif project, using a particularly innovative freight transport simulation system, especially in terms of defining the demand for goods, describing transport procurement and simulating the modal split.
The first makes a clear distinction between freight generation (FG) and freight traffic generation (FTG) approaches; the second is closely linked to the various logistic networks that operate on the regional territory; the third has become part of the more general joint choice of transport service and shipment size, following the well-known Harris formula based on Total Logistics Cost (TLC).
Pilot action 5 integrates 8, aimed at identifying those volumes of freight traffic, relating to regional intermodal nodes and their basins, which can be moved by rail.
Regional context
Emilia-Romagna has a highly specialized production system, made up of 424,000 companies, mainly small and medium-sized enterprises, 50,000 of which operate in the manufacturing macro-sector.
The rail / road modal split for regional freight transport is about 11-89%, for national traffic, while for traffic coming from the region it is 14-86%. An evident imbalance, so the question is: is there the possibility of transferring long-distance flows from road to rail? To evaluate the activation of medium-long distance railway services, the regional freight transport model will be used, being updated with pilot action 5.
The study also deepens the analysis from the point of view of the categories of goods, some of which are suitable for rail transport but still use road transport.
Expected results
Once all the data processing has been implemented, the technical departments and decision-making levels will be able to count on an updated regional freight transport model, essential for evaluating policy planning actions on possible future infrastructural and market scenarios.
In particular, regional planners, in deciding strategies and investments, will have an evaluation of the impact of new railway services on the modal split.