Freight Projects Research Articles

Railway noise monitoring - a tool to analyse in detail the evolution of noise over time during a rolling stock renewal period

As part of the commissioning of a rail freight project, a noise monitoring system was set up to track the increase in rail freight traffic and to monitor noise over time. Noise monitoring is done by continuous measurement stations, an analysis of the classic noise exposure indexes LAeq,6-22h and LAeq,22-6h is realized, completed by an analysis of several event acoustic indexes, with a distinction between the different traffic types (Freight, regional trains). In addition, the European Regulation EU 2019/774 on the application of the technical specification for interoperability relating to the subsystem 'rolling stock - noise' to the existing freight wagons, obliges the circulation of less noisy freight trains on certain itineraries called "Quieter routes" from 8/12/2024. The projected benefit will not be limited to the nearby residents of these routes but will, by indirect consequence, enable a gradual acoustic gain on all the French rail freight routes, due to the retrofit or renewal of the existing rolling stock. The goal of the noise monitoring system is also to quantify the acoustic gains from the indirect effects of this new regulation.

Implementable Regional Truck Freight Planning Practices: Quick Ways to Get Started

To support the elevation of truck freight within the regional planning process, this study identified seven practices regional planners can initiate: coordinating land planning and truck freight planning; using freight advisory committees; monetizing reliability in project prioritization; quantifying truck parking deficiencies; using engineering strategies; incorporating truck freight into scenario planning; and obtaining freight data from public sources. A review of the literature and agency actions was conducted to identify these practices. Although these practices benefit from regional support, they cannot be fully implemented at the regional level. Some require municipal or county authority: reservation of street space for truck parking, modification of local zoning ordinances to mandate truck parking, and allowance of trucks in lanes reserved for transit in select cities. Some require state authority: allowing trucks to use park and ride lots at night, supporting private sector participation financially in regional freight advisory committees, or using the value of travel time reliability to evaluate freight project benefits. Some require either local or state support: notably, expansion or modification of truck routes based, in part, on examination of truck patterns. All practices carry some type of financial or political cost: one interviewee noted that increased zoning requirements might reduce a locality’s ability to compete for industrial businesses. However, regional staff can start the analysis required to support these practices by identifying the benefits, costs, and feasibility of these initiatives through the regional planning process.

Connected freight transport advances and benefits

This paper discusses recent connectivity advances in freight transport, and benefits which can be derived from these advances. They include environmental, economic, and social benefits. The paper specifically describes security benefits found from the Secure Border-Ready Freight project, undertaken by Syselek (UK) Ltd with support from the UK Department for Transport, in which the customs management aspect of connected containerized freight transport was investigated in the context of the UK's new customs processes following the UK's exit from the EU. A new connected freight security system enables customs clearance at any point during the container shipment journey, also providing data to support risking analysis by authorities. It is envisaged that with wider adoption of IoT connectivity solutions, further freight transport benefits will be realized.

Identifying optimal Truck freight management strategies through urban areas: Case study of major freight corridor near US-Mexico border

In the United States, the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act has created new funding opportunities to improve safety and eliminate critical freight bottlenecks. This has renewed focus of transportation agencies (state Department of Transportation [DOTs], and Metropolitan Planning Organizations [MPOs], cities, etc.) towards freight management strategies and projects that can significantly reduce inefficiencies in freight mobility through urban areas. However, current literature has gaps in terms of identifying appropriate freight projects, lacks review of implemented truck freight management strategies, and does not identify modeling methodologies for these freight management strategies. Hence, this paper reviews and classifies various freight management strategies, develops a systematic methodology to identify best strategies, and provides modeling guidance. The paper also performs case studies on shortlisted strategies for major freight corridors in the city of El Paso at US-Mexico border region. The modeling methods and approach is generic and can be adopted by any agency.

Comparative analysis of traffic-and-transportation-planning-related indicators in sustainable transportation infrastructure rating systems

A sustainable transportation infrastructure rating system (STIRS) generally encompasses a wide range of indicators for the comprehensive evaluation of the sustainability of transportation projects. Appropriate traffic and transportation planning solutions may increase the performance of transportation projects. However, no investigation has been conducted to assess the significance of traffic-and-transportation-planning-related indicators (TTPIs) in STIRSs. This study first identified the five most up-to-date rating systems from 12 existing STIRSs. TTPIs were extracted from different categories of the five STIRSs, and similar feature indicators were regrouped into different traffic-and-transportation-planning-related features (TTPFs). The comparative analysis approach was adopted to investigate the priority and significance of TTPFs and TTPIs in the selected rating systems. The findings revealed that among the selected rating systems, Green Guides for Roads allocates the highest percentage of total points (37%) to TTPIs, whereas the Infrastructure Voluntary Evaluation Sustainability Tool allocates the lowest percentage of total points (20.9%) to TTPIs. With respect to the TTPFs of transportation projects, pedestrian paths and sidewalks, bicycle facilities, and traffic facilities are believed to contribute considerably to project sustainability, whereas freight traffic, parking spaces, and project consistency are believed to make relatively low contributions to project sustainability.

Business Improvement Districts in Urban Freight Sustainability Initiatives: A Case Study Approach

The paper extends research into the importance of freight transport partnerships by considering the role of Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) in supporting sustainable urban freight initiatives. A review of the freight transport-related work that has been carried out in BIDs in central London is included. A detailed case study of a freight project in the Baker Street Quarter (BSQ) Partnership provides insight into work carried out in the multi-tenanted office and hotel sectors. The findings of this research in terms of freight transport and logistics activity patterns at the businesses studied together with the potential freight transport solutions identified are discussed.

Freeway truck travel time prediction for freight planning using truck probe GPS data

Predicting truck (heavy vehicle) travel time is a principal component of freight project prioritization and planning. However, most existing travel time prediction models are designed for passenger vehicles and fail to make truck specific forecasts or use truck specific data. Little is known about the impact of this limitation, or how truck travel time prediction could be improved in response to freight investments with an improved methodology. In light of this, this paper proposes a pragmatic multi-regime speed-density relationship based approach to predict freeway truck travel time using empirical truck probe GPS data (which is increasingly available in North American and Europe) and loop detector data. Traffic regimes are segmented using a cluster analysis approach. Two case studies are presented to illustrate the approach. The travel time estimates are compared with the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) model and the Akçelik model outputs. It is found that the proposed method is able to estimate more accurate travel times than traditional methods. The predicted travel time can support freight prioritization and planning.

The Smart Freight Project as a Superior Way to Cope with Congestion and Environmental Negative Externalities in Urban Areas

Congestion, car exhaust gases, permanent noise and risk of accidents are the most common and severe problems in conurbations, especially in their cores or commerce districts. Such problems basically result from the continuously increasing amount of private and business vehicles on streets. It is obvious that more cars moving on the streets indicate more environmental negative externalities, therefore, new solutions to combat them are not only needed, but absolutely necessary. The aim of this dissemination paper is to focus on the idea of the SmartFreight project which was introduced in the UE a few years ago, but still has been neglected by many city representatives or cargo delivery companies. The project deals with all the problems that appear inside city centres due to cargo trucks services or lorry door-to-door delivery. The authors of this paper posit the hypothesis that for the time being, the SmartFreight project is the best solution against congestion and environmentally harmful externalities in urban areas. To support the hypothesis and show the effectiveness and benefits of the SmartFreight project implementation, the authors discuss all assumptions of the SmartFreight project and analyse statistics, figures and survey data collected in the cities where the SmartFreight project has been launched.

From Freight Partnerships to City Logistics Living Labs – Giving Meaning to the Elusive Concept of Living Labs

The paper discusses the growing importance of urban freight research given the increasing urban population trends. The complexity of urban freight systems means that it is essential for the public and private sectors to work together - one way to achieve this has been through freight partnerships. A short review of freight partnerships highlights the way in which they have fostered mutual understanding among urban freight stakeholders. The literature on shared situational awareness (SSA) and joint knowledge production (JKP) has been adapted to position freight partnerships and to further develop and link these partnerships to the concept of a living laboratory concerned with urban freight transport. This novel application of the living lab concept is introduced. Next, the first phases of a city logistics living lab brought in practice in Rotterdam are shortly mentioned. The living lab concept fits the complexities of the urban freight system well and has been a cornerstone of a recently started major freight project in the EU (CITYLAB).

Current State of Estimation of Multimodal Freight Project Impacts

As available data have increased and as the national transportation funding bills have moved toward objective evaluation, departments of transportation (DOTs) throughout the United States have begun to develop tools to attempt to measure the effects of different projects. Increasingly, DOTs recognize that the freight transportation system is necessarily multimodal. However, no DOTs have clearly stated objective tools with which to evaluate multimodal freight project comparisons. This paper informs that gap by summarizing the existing academic literature on the state of the science for the estimation of freight project impacts and by reviewing methods currently used by selected DOTs nationwide. These methods are analyzed to identify common themes to determine potential avenues for multimodal project evaluation.

Moving the Goods: Performance Measures and the Value Proposition for Transportation Projects

This paper addresses the challenges of implementing transportation projects and policies. Despite advances in data, analysis tools, and technologies, the difficulty of making the case remains for transportation actions where the values of those actions are perceived by key stakeholders as less than commensurate with the costs that they are asked to pay. This perceived inequity occurs when citizens who bear the impacts of transportation actions are not the beneficiaries, when the benefits are characterized in aggregate, and when projects do not appear to be salient to the majority of stakeholders. In such cases, there is a need to construct a more explicit value proposition, a statement of promised results that fosters belief on the part of stakeholders. Promised results should be presented in credible forecasts of outcomes from actions that improve transportation performance. They should be described in terms that are specific enough to address the what's-in-it-for-me question. And they should be built on agency credibility earned by a record of delivering results. Freight projects are particularly difficult to advance because the economic and social benefits of freight performance are largely invisible to citizens, underscoring the need to make the value proposition for freight project outcomes relevant to individuals and communities. The relationships between transportation investments and their outcomes, the quality of forecasting tools, and the credibility of transportation agencies can be advanced through systematic, balanced, post-project audits (including before–after evaluations) to learn and to demonstrate the actualized value of transportation projects and policies. These ideas are entirely consistent with, and supportive of, the concepts of performance-based management advanced under MAP-21.

New Approach to Appraisal of Rail Freight Projects in South Korea

This paper contributes to the estimation of the value of rail freight transit time savings, reliability, and service frequency for producers and transport operators by using stated preference data for short-haul rail freight shipments in South Korea. To appraise investments in freight projects in South Korea, the mixed logit model was used to determine the value of rail freight transit time savings, resulting in an estimated savings of about $2.31/h per shipment. The value of rail freight reliability (the percentage of on-time arrivals and departures) is $2.78/h of delay and $0.54/day for scheduled freight service delay. The results for freight time value for different economic agents are surprising: shippers perceived the value of transit time, transit time reliability, and service frequency to be far higher than producers did. Shippers valued rail freight transit time savings at about $2.35/metric ton h, whereas this same value for producers was $1.21/metric ton h. When the time benefit based on these values was added to the preliminary feasibility evaluation for 20 freight railroad infrastructure projects in South Korea, the number of projects for which benefits outweighed costs increased from four to 11.

Freight-Specific Data Derived from Intelligent Transportation Systems

Freight planning is an increasingly visible topic in the arena of transportation planning. Freight planning metrics and benchmarks can help state agencies select and assess the impact of improvement projects with respect to freight mobility. Given the unique patterns of freight flow, freight metrics are most valuable when derived from freight-specific data. Extraction of timely freight-specific data to support freight planning efforts is not, however, always straightforward. Washington State, the primary focus of this study, has been developing potential methodologies for extracting and applying freight-specific data in benchmarking freight projects. The Freight Mobility Strategic Investment Board (FMSIB) of Washington State deployed intelligent transportation systems (ITS) technologies [Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and automated vehicle identification (AVI)] with the stated goal of collecting freight-specific data. An examination of the data collected for the FMSIB benchmarking test reveals that both sources of data—GPS and AVI—can support the freight planning process. This paper highlights results of the FMSIB study, the comparative accuracy of the two data sources, and the uses of each for planning purposes.

Freight-Specific Data Derived from Intelligent Transportation Systems: Potential Uses in Planning Freight Improvement Projects

Freight planning is an increasingly visible topic in the arena of transportation planning. Freight planning metrics and benchmarks can help state agencies select and assess the impact of improvement projects with respect to freight mobility. Given the unique patterns of freight flow, freight metrics are most valuable when derived from freight-specific data. Extraction of timely freight-specific data to support freight planning efforts is not, however, always straightforward. Washington State, the primary focus of this study, has been developing potential methodologies for extracting and applying freight-specific data in benchmarking freight projects. The Freight Mobility Strategic Investment Board (FMSIB) of Washington State deployed intelligent transportation systems (ITS) technologies [Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and automated vehicle identification (AVI)] with the stated goal of collecting freight-specific data. An examination of the data collected for the FMSIB benchmarking test reveals that both...

Identifying Freight Mobility Projects for Possible Inclusion in a Statewide Transportation Improvement Program

In 2001, the Oregon state legislature formally authorized the Oregon Freight Advisory Committee (FAC), which had been established by the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) in 1998. One of the FAC's responsibilities according to the 2001 legislation was to identify high-priority freight mobility projects for consideration and inclusion in the statewide transportation improvement program (STIP). In 2003, the legislature reaffirmed the FAC's charge to identify high-priority freight mobility projects for possible inclusion in the STIP and authorized $100 million in new funding for projects that would enhance freight mobility, improve access to industrial lands, and improve access to job creation sites. The FAC's role was to identify and recommend freight mobility projects to be considered for the new funding. This paper summarizes the FAC process for addressing legislative direction to identify and recommend high-priority freight mobility projects. The summary includes a discussion of how the FAC (a) ...

Identifying Freight Mobility Projects for Possible Inclusion in a Statewide Transportation Improvement Program

In 2001, the Oregon state legislature formally authorized the Oregon Freight Advisory Committee (FAC), which had been established by the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) in 1998. One of the FAC's responsibilities according to the 2001 legislation was to identify high-priority freight mobility projects for consideration and inclusion in the statewide transportation improvement program (STIP). In 2003, the legislature reaffirmed the FAC's charge to identify high-priority freight mobility projects for possible inclusion in the STIP and authorized $100 million in new funding for projects that would enhance freight mobility, improve access to industrial lands, and improve access to job creation sites. The FAC's role was to identify and recommend freight mobility projects to be considered for the new funding. This paper summarizes the FAC process for addressing legislative direction to identify and recommend high-priority freight mobility projects. The summary includes a discussion of how the FAC ( a) developed and approved eligibility criteria for screening projects along with prioritization factors for narrowing the list of screened projects; ( b) incorporated planning considerations in identifying and screening projects; ( c) involved ODOT, FAC members, and the public in identifying, screening, and ranking projects; ( d) developed a list of prioritized projects; and ( e) presented a list of recommended projects to the Oregon Transportation Commission for its consideration to include all or some of the projects in the 2006–2009 STIP.

Rail Freight Project Finance

1. Henry Posner III 1. Chairman of the Railroad Development Corporation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Since the early 1990s, privatization has swept the global railway market. The experience of Railroad Development Corporation, a U.S.-based railway investment and management company focused on developing countries, suggests that marketing has a greater impact than cost control on the success of a railway project. A case study on the restoration of an abandoned railroad in Guatemala illustrates how Railroad Development Corporation found local partners, identified freight customers, leased the right of way for non-railroad businesses, arranged financing, and reconstructed the railroad. Lessons learned on assessing the transportation market and valuing the business would be helpful for other emerging-market railroad projects.