The Agenda 2015 for combined transport in Europe, published within UIC’s DIOMIS project (Developing Infrastructure and Operating Models for Intermodal Shift), includes among others an analysis of the types of efficient wagons for optimal use of the infrastructure and train parameters. The agenda prioritizes the doubling of freight volumes in combined transport and warns about the necessity of investing in the design and manufacture of new wagons.
According to the UIC study, over the next 10 years, an important number of wagons with a life expectancy of 30 years due to highly performing operation standards will have to be replaced. This means that around 18,500 wagons will have to be replaced between 2012 and 2018. After 2018, around 3-4% of the current fleet of wagons will have to be replaced every year.
While the first combined transport ser-vices were delivered using standard flat wagons, the increasing demand has led to the development of wagons especially designed for this type of transport. Nowadays, a large variety of types of wagons was developed to fit the increasing types of loading units in what concerns length and weight.
Due to the increasing number of semi-trailers in loading units, the demand of pocket wagons is constantly increasing. These wagons provide a better use of the train length.
To that end, Hupac meets the demand with a recently designed pocket wagon whose prototype was presented in Lugano and whose main features are versatility and flexibility. This type of wagon is derived from the Mega II wagon and it will be ready for production in 2012. The wagon is designed for the transport of high-profile units with a platform lowered by 23 cm compared with that of a normal flat wagon. Silent and energy-efficient, this is a double pocket wagon with container module. The new bogie increases the average wagon loading capacity by 30% compared with the Mega II version, thus reaching 85%; the average wagon load is 51 tonnes with a maximum load of 60 tonnes.
According to the same UIC study, the future volume of combined transport in Europe has already been included in the Agenda 2015 for combined transport in Europe. Estimates show that the 126 million tonnes 2005 volume will more than double by 2015 to 269 million. If performance remains to 2,600 tonnes per year, 55,000 new wagons will be necessary. Considering the need to replace 11,000 wagons by 2015, a total number of 66,000 new wagons will be needed, 20,000 of which are already orders and options.
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