The State of Urban Rail Freight Strategies in European Cities

With a shifting focus of urban planners towards freight transport, the use of railways in urban transport chains is increasingly advocated. The shift to rail-based freight transport is expected to reduce the dependency on road infrastructure, and to contribute to a range of current challenges in transportation, such as congestion, pollution and road safety. However there seems no consolidated approach to rail freight in the urban context. This paper analyses the state of urban (freight) transport strategies by public bodies concerning the use of railways. It compiles and compares transport strategies from cities in the largest metropolitan areas in Europe. The strategies and plans are studied with respect to their specificity, their objectives and the measures they propose. Local circumstances and the type of public body issuing the strategy are taken into account. The study identifies a lack of rail-specific measures in transport strategies. Strategies that contain details on rail freight are restricted to network and terminal infrastructure, leaving a gap in terms of train operation and technology.

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• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AR040 Standing Committee on Freight Rail Transportation.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Fumasoli, Tobias M
  • Weidmann, Ulrich A
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 95th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2016-1-10 to 2016-1-14
• Date: 2016

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 11p
• Monograph Title: TRB 95th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Cities; Freight transportation; Railroads; Urban transportation policy
• Geographic Terms: Europe
• Subject Areas: Freight Transportation; Planning and Forecasting; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01590766
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 16-5390
• Files: PRP, TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 22 2016 1:18PM