Freight Strategy Study for Norwegian Railway Directorate

Increasing the transport of goods by rail will help improve the environment and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Norwegian Railway Directorate is developing a strategic plan for improving the efficiently of freight railway service.

As part of the strategic study, the Directorate asked trenolab to help identify the most effective length of freight trains for long-term development of the long-distance corridors. Longer trains would require fewer trains to carry the expected traffic (lowering operating costs), but would require building longer passing sections (increasing capital costs) since the network is mostly single-track.

To answer this question trenolab developed and tested several timetable scenarios for each line based on different train lengths and projected daily freight demand. The analysis identified the required investments (new/extended passing sections, additional block signals), as well as the operating cost and service quality impacts of alternatives. This data was used in a cost-benefit analysis to help identify the most beneficial alternative on all routes.

Finally, the proposed alternatives were verified using microscopic simulation, and the resulting capacity utilisation estimated using TRENOplus.