RAIL TRANSPORT & ECONOMIC

DEVELOPMENT

Topics

• Transport modes• Modal competition• Passenger or freight?• Transportation today

Transport Modes

TRANSPORT MODES…CONT’D

TRANSPORT MODES…CONT’D

TRANSPORT MODES…CONT’D

TRANSPORT MODES…CONT’D

TRANSPORT MODES…CONT’D

Performance Comparison for Selected Freight Modes

Barge

Hopper car

100 car train unit

Semi-trailer truck

1500 Tons52,500 Bushels453,600 Gallons

100 Tons3,500 Bushels30,240 Gallons

10,000 Tons350,000 Bushels3,024,000 Gallons

26 Tons; 910 Bushels7,865 Gallons9,000 for a tanker truck

124 tons

Capacity

5

57.7(865.4 for 15 barges in tow)

Truck EquivalencyVehicle

3.8

384.6

1

Post-panamax containership5,000 TEU 2,116

9,330VLCC

300,000 tons2 million barrels of oil

747-400F

Comparison of the Relative Efficiencies of Rail and Trucking in the us

Mode Fuel Consumption

Infrastructure Capacity

Costs Safety

Railroad 455 ton-miles per gallon

216 million tons per mainline per year

2.7 cents per ton-mile

0.61 fatalities per billion ton-miles; 12.4 incidents per billion ton-miles

Trucking 105 ton-miles per gallon

37.8 million tons per lane per year

5.0 cents per ton-mile

1.45 fatalities per billion ton-miles; 36.4 incidents per billion ton-miles

Modal Competition

A

B

Mode

1 23

A

B

Infrastructure / Route

A

B

A

B

4 5

6

A

B

Market Area

TRANSPORTATION TODAY

Rail Transportation

• 17th century – move material in quarries & mines• Major role in economic development• Rail line

– Resources– Servicing regional economies– Achieve territorial control

• High level of economic & territorial control– Monopoly – Europe– Oligopoly – North America

RAIL TRANSPORTATION…CONT’D

Geographical Settings of Rail Lines

Penetration LinesLocal / Regional NetworksTranscontinental Lines

Nation A

Nation B

Types Rail Corridors

Copyright © 1998-2009, Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue, Dept. of Global Studies & Geography, Hofstra University. For personal or classroom use ONLY. This material (including graphics) is not public domain and cannot be published, in whole or in part, in ANY form (printed or electronic) and on any media without consent. This includes conference presentations. Permission MUST be requested prior to use.

Economy of rail tptn

• Large qtty of freight & pax – reasonable speed– Pax service – high population– Freight traffic – bulk, agricultural &

industrial raw material• Low energy consumption• High capital cost

Economy of rail tpt (2)

• Interurban pax tptn– Japan, China, India

• High speed pax rail – Europe• North America

– Freight – dominant– Pax – major urban corridors

Performance of Rail and Road Transportation

0

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

300,000

350,000

Rail Road

Sur

face

and

Cap

acity

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

Spa

tial P

erfo

rman

ce

Surface used(m2/km)

Capacity(t/km/day)

SpatialPerformance(t/km/m2/day)

economy of rail tptn

• Impact of globalization– Land bridges– Influenced by pattern of energy consumption– Integration rail & maritime– Extended metropolitan region– Container traffic

Technical changes in rail tptn

Bypassing Effect of a High Speed Railway

A

B

Landbridges

• Use the land freight as a means of transport connection - continuity of a maritime segment

• History– Silk road (15th century)– 1st modern landbridge = 1880s by Canadian Pacific

Railway : to improve shipping time of high value Asian commodities

– Associated with intermodal transportation

Landbridges (2)

• Characteristic of landbridge– Single bill of lading

issued by freight forwarder that covers the entire intermodal journey

– The goods remain in the same container for the entire journey

TYPES OF LANDBRIDGES

• Landbridge– the rail system is used as a link between a foreign origin and

destination. The continental mass is simply used as a link (bridge) between two maritime systems.

– an intermodal container shipped by ocean vessel from country A to country B, land bridges across an entire body of land/ country/ continent, en route.

– the transport mode is almost exclusively rail because it offers a faster long distance service.

– e.g., a container shipment from China to Germany, is loaded onto a ship in China, unloads at a Los Angeles (California) port and travels via rail transport to a New York/New Jersey port, and loads on a ship for Hamburg. Also see Eurasian Land Bridge.

TYPES OF LANDBRIDGES (2)• Minibridge

– it involves a foreign origin but the destination is a port reached from another port of the same continental mass.

– An intermodal container shipped by ocean vessel from country A to country B, passes across a large portion of land in either country A or B.

– e.g., a container shipment from China to New York (New York), is loaded onto a ship in China, unloads at a Los Angeles (California) port and travels via rail transport to New York (New York), the final destination.

TYPES OF LANDBRIDGES (3)• Microbridge

– it involves a link between a foreign origin and an inland destination via a port of entry

– An intermodal container shipped by ocean vessel from country A to country B, passes across a large portion of land to reach an interior inland destination.

– took more time to become implemented because collaboration (such as joint ventures) among companies of different transport sectors are needed

– e.g., a container shipment from China to Denver (Colorado), is loaded onto a ship in China, unloads at a Los Angeles (California) port and travels via rail transport to Denver (Colorado), the final destination.[14][15]