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General information
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Description
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Freight trains, although travelling much slower than high speed trains, also consume a high share of their energy demand for overcoming air drag. This can be mainly attributed to the aerodynamically unfavourable shape of freight trains: the space between cars is not shielded, many cars have no roof or cover and are often empty. Many freight trains are mixed, i.e. they are composed of different types of freight cars. In mixed trains air resistance can be substantially reduced by ordering the freight cars in an aerodynamically favourable manner without any changes on the rolling stock itself. |
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General criteria
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Status of development: research & experiments |
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(no details available) |
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Time horizon for broad application: 2 - 5 years |
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(no details available) |
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Expected technological development: not applicable |
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(no details available) |
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Motivation:
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(no details available) |
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Benefits (other than environmental): none |
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(no details available) |
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Barriers: high |
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Complexity of train formation Single freight cars do not arrive at the point of train formation in order of size and air resistance. Therefore imposing a specific waggon order would put another constraint on the train formation process and make it more time consuming unless a high degree of additional planning is applied. In any case, additional freight car ordering would increase train formation costs. |
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Success factors:
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A feasibility study should be made in order to find out the potential of modern telematics applications to facilitate the aerodynamic optimisation of train formation. The corresponding IT tool could be implemented as a part of a logistic planning or fleet management system. |
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Applicability for railway segments: high |
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Type of traction: electric - DC, electric - AC, diesel
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Type of transportation: freight
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(no details available) |
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Grade of diffusion into railway markets:
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Diffusion into relevant segment of fleet: not applicable |
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Share of newly purchased stock: not applicable |
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(no details available) |
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Market potential (railways): not applicable |
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(no details available) |
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Example:
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Environmental criteria
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Impacts on energy efficiency:
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Energy efficiency potential for single vehicle: 5 - 10% |
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Energy efficiency potential throughout fleet: 1 - 2% |
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Other environmental impacts: neutral |
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Economic criteria
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Vehicle - fix costs: none |
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Vehicle - running costs: significant reduction |
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(no details available) |
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Infrastructure - fix costs: none |
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(no details available) |
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Infrastructure - running costs: increased |
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The process of train formation at the freight stations and coupling and decoupling points will become more time consuming and expensive by such a measure. However, this effect could possibly be minimised by the use of an intelligent telematics application to facilitate car order planning. |
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Scale effects: not applicable |
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(no details available) |
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Amortisation: not applicable |
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Application outside railway sector (this technology is railway specific)
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Overall rating
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Overall potential: promising |
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Time horizon: mid-term |
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Given present train formation processes, imposing aerodynamic constraints on car order meets huge organisational obstacles. However, the big theoretical saving potential of such a measure justifies a close look at chances to overcome the barriers. R&D is recommendable to examine the possibility of integrating aerodynamic constraints into existing or future logistic planning and fleet management systems. |
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date created: 2002-10-09
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