A State of the Art on Railway Simulation Modelling Software Packages and Their Application to Designing Baggage Transfer Services

There is a new baggage transfer service suggested in Newcastle Central Station. In order to prove that this service is feasible, a simulation model can be developed to test the concept and operating pattern behind. For the purposes of this paper, we intend to organize a literature review on simulation modelling software packages employed to study service design. Specifically, this paper has compared five different simulation software packages used by the railway industry to study service-related challenges. As a result, it is suggested that SIMUL8, a macroscopic discrete event-based software package, should be used among the five compared ones because of its simplicity and the ability to give practical results for the design and performance of such a baggage transfer system

Designing a geo-strategic railway freight network in Brazil using GIS

The sustainable development of geo-strategic transport networks plays a key role to meet the current expansion of the demand for commerce and economic growth. In this paper, a new geo-strategic railway network for freight services is designed with the purpose of meeting the needs of current and future demands for freight transport in the state of Santa Catarina, South Brazil. The freight flows of bulk cargo, containers, and refrigerated and liquid cargo observed in 2005 and 2015 and expected for 2023 have been analyzed and assigned to a fully connected railway network. The number of trains to meet all the demands has been identified. The links that would have a minimum number of daily trains running on them have also been identified and analyzed. New assignments are proposed and visualized using GIS. Next, location and technical specifications of specialized intermodal terminals focused on the customers’ and operators’ needs are discussed. The study shows that technological specifications for terminal operations play an important role when dealing with multiple freight types and contribute to better use of the existing infrastructure