Freight transport is a crucial pillar of the economy: it carries items from production websites to merchants and keeps shop racks equipped. According to projections by the Federal Ministry of Transport, it will continue to grow– by 2030, freight traffic is anticipated to increase by a further 38 percent over 2010 levels. Even now, however, it accounts for about one third of the transport sector’s greenhouse-gas emissions in Germany. In future, more freight must for that reason be moved to other modes of transport within the EU, discusses Professor Uwe Clausen, head of ITL at the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Director at the Fraunhofer Institute for Product Circulation and Logistics IML: “Shifting items– whether to rail or inland waterways– provides numerous advantages, for the environment along with for the cost-efficiency and security of freight transportation.”
In Integrated Transport (CT), goods are carried over cross countries by train or ship to terminals that act as hubs. In CT, trucks are used only for the fastest possible ranges– e.g., to bring items to the terminal or to provide them from there to the unloading site. “Yet this shift in transportation modes has actually stagnated within the EU,” says Clausen. “The growing number of construction sites required for infrastructure growth likewise plays a role. The obstacle, then, is to ensure that goods already on rail remain there and do not shift to road transportation due to disturbances or unpredictabilities.” Together with his group, Teacher Uwe Clausen is for that reason investigating possible options for managing disturbances in rail and combined transportation in the new task “Rail Disruption Simulation – Simulation-based Analysis of the Impact of Functional Disturbances in CT (RailDisSim).”
Decisions in Disruption Management
Diverse stakeholders collaborate in CT to process freight effectively– carriers, freight forwarders, carriers, operators and terminal managers. When an interruption happens on the rail network, quick re-planning is needed. There are typically two options, describes Marius Dellbrügge, Elder Engineer at ITL and Group Leader for Transportation Modeling and Process Planning: “Either you use an alternative rail path or you shift the transport to roadway. In practice, however, selecting the best possible choice typically stops working due to an absence of information exchange amongst the parties included. Not occasionally, road transport ends up being the default in disturbance cases, despite the fact that a rail diversion would be more useful economically, environmentally or socially.”
In the project’s very first stage, the RailDisSim group therefore is examining how stakeholders behave during disruption management. They’re recognizing which aspects affect the option of diversion and the transportation mode used. For this, the ITL researchers are partnering with catkin, a Dortmund-based IT provider that develops digital options for the transport market.
Practice-oriented Simulations
Building on field-research information and catkin’s systems, the group will establish a simulation design for modal shifts. The simulation will think about 3 diversion options: utilizing a different rail line, moving to road, or rerouting through another terminal. Franziska Rosenthal, research study assistant at ITL, describes: “Simulation-based analysis lets us determine optimization potentials in handling operational interruptions. Through varied situations, we can obtain actionable recommendations for the market.” The objective of RailDisSim is to develop a tool that helps decision-makers choose the optimum mode of transportation in CT.
. With its research study into networked, climate-friendly logistics solutions, RailDisSim effectively secured funding in the “NeueWege.IN.NRW” development competition and is now economically supported by the EU and the NRW Ministry of Economic Affairs, Market, Environment Action and Energy (MWIKE). Under the “North Rhine-Westphalia 2021– 2027” program of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF, German: EFRE) and the Just Shift Fund (JTF), the task is moneyed with around 733,000 euros in total, approximately 466,000 euros of which goes to TU Dortmund University.
Additional information on RailDisSim
NeueWege.IN.NRW
Contact for inquiries: