D1.1. ESEP4Freight. Set of KPIs, assessment of emerging technologies and modal share analysis
Creators: name: Djordjevic, Boban
name: Minbashi, Niloofar
name: Nordmark, Ingrid
name: Gómez Fernández, Javier
name: Minchón, Alejandro
name: Sobrino, Natalia
name: Sánchez Martín, Celestino
name: Rosell Camps, Francisca
name: Kumar Sudkahar, Vivin
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Rail freight
Modal shift
Transport market

description: This document is Deliverable 1.1 (D1.1) of work package 1 (WP1) within the ESEP4Freight project.The project will support a simple, cost-effective and sustainable modal shift of freight flows to rail% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels and decarbonizing transport. The overall objective of ESEP4Freightis to contribute to the provision of open, high quality and user-friendly information for all actorsin the supply chain and to test innovative new tools to promote modal shift to rail.The key areas to improve the performance of rail and its share of the transport market are railautomation and digitalization, which include the introduction of advanced innovations. The maininnovations researched and developed under the Shift2Rail (S2R) program were digital automaticcouplers (DAC) and intelligent video gates (IVG). To assess the impact of the innovations inDeliverable 1.1, the key performance indicators were reviewed and collected. In addition to thisset of indicators, this report also summarises indicators that can be used to monitor and evaluatefreight flows in the transport networks. With the aim of supporting the functionalities of the webplatform, a set of indicators for these purposes has been collected and presented in this report.In this deliverable effects of these innovations on the efficiency of rail freight transport wasassessed using analysis and simulation tools. The impact of DAC technology on train processingtime of trains in the marshalling yard was evaluated using the total transit time indicator. Theresults show that significant time savings can be achieved with the implementation of DAC level 4and DAC level 5. Subsequently, the impact of DAC on total transit time was examined usingscenarios for two rail products such as single wagonload and intermodal traffic. Similar to theprevious case, a significant improvement can be achieved with DAC. The impact of IVG on efficientoperational processes in the marshalling yard was investigated using the AnyLogic simulation tool.Based on the assumption that IVG is used on arrival at the marshalling yard and before hump, it isshown that replacing personnel with IVG can reduce the time required for train processing.Apart from this, other general emerging innovations that are expected to promote new businessmodels in the rail sector are also considered. It is expected that the introduction of thesetechnologies will have various positive effects on the different performances of the railway, suchas the improvement of railway capacity, railway productivity, efficiency of shunting operations,safety levels and the working environment.With the aim of determining the potential for shifting freight from road to rail, the status of railfreight transport on the European transport market was analysed using a scenario-basedmethodology based on the cluster method. In addition to the traffic flows, the analysis of currentand future market trends was used to identify goods with a higher potential for modal shift to rail.In line with the strategy proposed by European policy to shift goods transported over 300 km byroad to rail, the report shows that there is considerable potential for shifting goods to rail. Theresults are presented by type of NST goods and for specific countries with the highest potentialfor modal shift to rail.