Nouveaux entrants, structure du réseau ferré et qualité des infrastructures ferroviaires en France : des stratégies d’itinéraires contrariées

Is Freight Really Flexible in the Timetabling Process for a Mixed‐Use Rail Network? Some Considerations Based on French Experience

“…Freight trains materialize flows of goods that transit between different spatial locations at the national and international levels on rail infrastructures with a geographical organisation and technical characteristics that are strongly influenced by historical legacy (Zembri & Bavay, 2011). Freight train departure and arrival points can be ports, intermodal terminals, marshalling yards, freight terminals or private sidings.…”

“…For some freight services, new entrants tried to develop alternative routing strategies to those of Fret SNCF in order to avoid congested segments and nodes (see examples in Zembri & Bavay, 2011). But they had to face important difficulties related to the poor performance of some parts of the rail network although the planned route was shorter and more direct to reach the final destination.…”

“…Sometimes, the lack of routing flexibility may also be the result of shippers' requirements. To continue with the example of mineral waters given by Zembri & Bavay (2011), since 2012, Danone has required from ECR to carry them from Evian to Great Britain with electric traction units only, which significantly influences the route. Direct consequences for the operator have been the increase of the infrastructure charges ** but the decrease of the maintenance cost of the rolling stock (maintenance of electric locomotives is cheaper than diesel-powered ones).…”