The representatives of 10 European companies and research institutions came together in Hannover in September to launch a three-year research and development project that aims to improve the performance of single-wagonload rail freight operations.
Viable Wagonload Production Schemes (ViWaS) has a budget of EUR 4.2Million, of which EUR 2.9 Million will come from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technical Development.
The objectives of ViWaS include optimising the performance of last mile operations, including the opportunities for contai-nerisation of freight and the use of hybrid locomotives, improvements to wagons and swap bodies based on the flex freight system developed by Wascosa, Switzerland, intelligent and inexpensive telematics for wagons, development of an IT interface for wagon-related telematic data, and new management concepts for rail hubs, focusing on cost-effective binding of combined and single-wagon traffic.
The project is being coordinated by HaCon, Germany, and partners include Zurich ETH technical school, Germany’s Bentheim Railway, Eureka Navigation Solutions, Germany, Fret SNCF, Consorzio IB Innovation, Italy, Newopera, SBB Cargo, Berlin Technical University and Wascosa, Switzerland.
On the one hand, the market share of European single wagon traffic has declined overall in recent years due to high production costs and low quality standards. On the other hand, rail transports by single wagon or wagon group represent an indispensable part of the transport chain, such as for the chemicals industry. ViWaS should help adapt the system to the requirements of modern logistics and thus ensure its viability for the long term. New concepts and targeted developments aim at making improvements in multiple areas. These include increasing efficiency for servicing the “last mile,” a higher degree of utilization of the rolling stock as well as shorter transport times and increased qua-lity of transportation and information.
These developments will then be tested and demonstrated in real-world operations using concrete case studies in order to draw conclusions and formulate strategies for continued use.
Single wagonload (SWL) transport is still a major component in numerous European states transport systems and in the logistics of different economic sectors such as steel, chemical industry and automotive. However, changing framework conditions and increasingly demanding market requirements have led to dramatic market losses and even to complete shutdown of SWL business in some countries. As this business segment has been evaluated as important for specific transports in a European co-modal transport system also in the future, significant improvements are needed.
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