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How and Why Freight Trains Deviate from the Timetable : Evidence from Sweden

Palmqvist, Carl-William LU orcid ; Lind, Anne and Ahlqvist, Victoria LU (2022) In IEEE Open Journal of Intelligent Transport Systems
Abstract
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 added, cancelled, delayed or early, 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 added once the timetable has been created, and that cancellations occur for about 35% of freight trains, mostly at the RUs’ initiative. Delays are common: some 40% of departures, 30% of runtimes, and 20% of dwell times are delayed. Running early is even more common: 80% are ready to... (More)
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 added, cancelled, delayed or early, 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 added once the timetable has been created, and that cancellations occur for about 35% of freight trains, mostly at the RUs’ initiative. Delays are common: some 40% of departures, 30% of runtimes, and 20% of dwell times are delayed. Running early 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. (Less)
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author
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
IEEE Open Journal of Intelligent Transport Systems
pages
12 pages
publisher
IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
external identifiers
  • scopus:85134815521
ISSN
2687-7813
DOI
10.1109/OJITS.2022.3160546
project
Mindre Störningar i Tågtrafiken, del 2
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
e02f2651-5663-4e86-bd61-e1ad7a53ff1f
date added to LUP
2022-03-17 15:52:26
date last changed
2023-11-08 03:28:29
@article{e02f2651-5663-4e86-bd61-e1ad7a53ff1f,
  abstract     = {{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 added, cancelled, delayed or early, 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 added once the timetable has been created, and that cancellations occur for about 35% of freight trains, mostly at the RUs’ initiative. Delays are common: some 40% of departures, 30% of runtimes, and 20% of dwell times are delayed. Running early 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.}},
  author       = {{Palmqvist, Carl-William and Lind, Anne and Ahlqvist, Victoria}},
  issn         = {{2687-7813}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{03}},
  publisher    = {{IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.}},
  series       = {{IEEE Open Journal of Intelligent Transport Systems}},
  title        = {{How and Why Freight Trains Deviate from the Timetable : Evidence from Sweden}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/115414113/Palmqvist_Lind_Ahlqvist_2021_IEEE_OJ_ITS_final.pdf}},
  doi          = {{10.1109/OJITS.2022.3160546}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}