How and Why Freight Trains Deviate From the Timetable: Evidence From Sweden
European infrastructure managers (IMs) create annual timetables for trains that will run during a year. Freight trains in Sweden often deviate from this by being <italic>added</italic>, <italic>canceled</italic>, <italic>delayed</italic> or <italic>early<...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IEEE
2022-01-01
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| Series: | IEEE Open Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9737570/ |
| _version_ | 1811271678972395520 |
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| author | Carl-William Palmqvist Anne Lind Victoria Ahlqvist |
| author_facet | Carl-William Palmqvist Anne Lind Victoria Ahlqvist |
| author_sort | Carl-William Palmqvist |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | European infrastructure managers (IMs) create annual timetables for trains that will run during a year. Freight trains in Sweden often deviate from this by being <italic>added</italic>, <italic>canceled</italic>, <italic>delayed</italic> or <italic>early</italic>, resulting in increased costs for IMs and railway undertakings (RUs). We investigate the frequency of and causes for these deviations, using one year of operational data for 48,000 trains, and 15 stakeholder interviews. We find that about 20% of freight trains are <italic>added</italic> once the timetable has been created, and that <italic>cancelations</italic> occur for about 35% of freight trains, mostly at the RUs’ initiative. <italic>Delays</italic> are common: some 40% of departures, 30% of runtimes, and 20% of dwell times are delayed. Running <italic>early</italic> is even more common: 80% are ready to depart early, and 60% do so, while 40% of runtimes and 75% of dwell times are shorter than scheduled. We find links and feedback loops between the root causes for these deviations and suggest that IMs reserve more of the capacity that is needed for freight trains and instead distribute it throughout the year. This could lead to more appropriate, attractive, and reliable timetables for freight trains, whilst greatly reducing the amount of planning effort. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T22:24:14Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9c261bab88044b8288a3848b6436660d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2687-7813 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T22:24:14Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | IEEE |
| record_format | Article |
| series | IEEE Open Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems |
| spelling | doaj.art-9c261bab88044b8288a3848b6436660d2022-12-22T03:14:13ZengIEEEIEEE Open Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems2687-78132022-01-01321022110.1109/OJITS.2022.31605469737570How and Why Freight Trains Deviate From the Timetable: Evidence From SwedenCarl-William Palmqvist0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3906-1033Anne Lind1Victoria Ahlqvist2Department of Technology and Society, Lund University, Lund, SwedenNational Capacity Optimisation, Swedish Transport Administration, Borlänge, SwedenDepartment of Industrial Management and Logistics, Lund University, Lund, SwedenEuropean infrastructure managers (IMs) create annual timetables for trains that will run during a year. Freight trains in Sweden often deviate from this by being <italic>added</italic>, <italic>canceled</italic>, <italic>delayed</italic> or <italic>early</italic>, resulting in increased costs for IMs and railway undertakings (RUs). We investigate the frequency of and causes for these deviations, using one year of operational data for 48,000 trains, and 15 stakeholder interviews. We find that about 20% of freight trains are <italic>added</italic> once the timetable has been created, and that <italic>cancelations</italic> occur for about 35% of freight trains, mostly at the RUs’ initiative. <italic>Delays</italic> are common: some 40% of departures, 30% of runtimes, and 20% of dwell times are delayed. Running <italic>early</italic> is even more common: 80% are ready to depart early, and 60% do so, while 40% of runtimes and 75% of dwell times are shorter than scheduled. We find links and feedback loops between the root causes for these deviations and suggest that IMs reserve more of the capacity that is needed for freight trains and instead distribute it throughout the year. This could lead to more appropriate, attractive, and reliable timetables for freight trains, whilst greatly reducing the amount of planning effort.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9737570/Freight transportationrail transportationrail transportation reliability |
| spellingShingle | Carl-William Palmqvist Anne Lind Victoria Ahlqvist How and Why Freight Trains Deviate From the Timetable: Evidence From Sweden IEEE Open Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems Freight transportation rail transportation rail transportation reliability |
| title | How and Why Freight Trains Deviate From the Timetable: Evidence From Sweden |
| title_full | How and Why Freight Trains Deviate From the Timetable: Evidence From Sweden |
| title_fullStr | How and Why Freight Trains Deviate From the Timetable: Evidence From Sweden |
| title_full_unstemmed | How and Why Freight Trains Deviate From the Timetable: Evidence From Sweden |
| title_short | How and Why Freight Trains Deviate From the Timetable: Evidence From Sweden |
| title_sort | how and why freight trains deviate from the timetable evidence from sweden |
| topic | Freight transportation rail transportation rail transportation reliability |
| url | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9737570/ |
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