Driving modal shift on low-traffic railway lines through technological innovation: a case study in Piedmont (Italy) including hydrogen fuel-cells as an alternative

Abstract

Sustainability - declined in social, environmental, and spatial forms - is a prerogative of rail transport. Hence, railway systems, with their low impact and high inclusivity, are the solution Europe is aiming at. However, some non-electrified secondary lines were suspended in recent years in different countries, including Italy, for economic and political choices. The line under investigation is the Saluzzo-Savigliano (Piedmont, Italy) for which the solution of forcing traffic to the road created queues, congestion, and an increase in local, besides a loss in the actual use of the time by travelers. This paper aims at providing a decision support method to drive the modal shift to the rail in low-traffic lines through innovation, simulating operation on the aforementioned line and evaluating consumption and emissions – in a WTW approach - of three different types of train: the diesel Minuetto, thus taking over the past operation, the tram-train, whose capacity is adequate to the demand, and the fuel cell train that should enter into circulation in Italy from 2023. To minimise consumption (kWh/km), an optimisation of the running curves is being suggested and operation is analysed with the use of a custom simulator; a comparison of the specific energy consumption (kWh/pass·km) and the emissions are thereafter proposed. Consequently, a multi-criteria analysis using Electre methodology is applied to assess which option is more convenient on the given route, performing also a sensitivity analysis to highlight the improvements to be made to obtain an optimal solution that is convenient both for railway undertaking and the end-user. The convenience of low-traffic railway lines is an issue to be solved to achieve a modal shift towards inclusive, economic, and environmental-friendly public transport and to increase the resilience of the involved area at the foot of Monviso, providing tourism development opportunities and efficient services for commuters, possible only by leveraging technological innovations.