Abstract

The European freight rail network will have to handle increasing volumes largely due to a shift from road to rail to reach the sustainability goals defined in the European Green Deal. Efforts are being undertaken to define and evaluate measures that will allow an already busy network to handle more volumes. One of the promising measures is the usage of longer freight trains going up to 740 metres. Increased length of trains means more cargo per service, but also means new challenges. Although this measure seems straightforward, the devil sits in the details, most notably operational details. In this paper, we present our investigations into the operational details of freight trains handling at one of the important endpoints of the network, the Port of Rotterdam. In order to account for details, we have developed a micro-simulation that incorporates the operational processes of freight train handling. Using this model, we have compared scenarios using various compositions of trains, among which a scenario with a high level of long trains. In the experiments, we have considered each individual siding and shunting yard of the port to have insights into the operations. While longer trains can help in handling more volumes, it will also create more additional congestion at shunting yards that needs to be considered.