Rail freight transport

Practice of transporting cargo by rail

Rail freight transport is the use of railways and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers. A freight train, cargo train, or goods train is a group of freight cars (US) or goods wagons (International Union of Railways) hauled by one or more locomotives on a railway, transporting cargo all or some of the way between the shipper and the intended destination as part of the logistics chain. Trains may haul bulk material, intermodal containers, general freight or specialized freight in purpose designed cars. Rail freight practices and economics vary by country and region. When considered in terms of ton miles or tonne kilometers hauled, energy efficiency can be greater with rail transportation than with other means. Maximum economies are typically realized with bulk commodities (e. g., coal), especially when hauled over long distances. Moving goods by rail often involves transshipment costs, particularly when the shipper or receiver lack direct rail access. These costs may exceed that of operating the train itself, a factor that practices such as containerization, trailer on flatcar or rolling highway aim to minimize.

Bulk cargo constitutes the majority of tonnage carried by most freight railroads. Bulk cargo is commodity cargo that is transported unpackaged in large quantities. These cargo are usually dropped or poured, with a spout or shovel bucket, as a liquid or solid, into a railroad car. Liquids, such as petroleum and chemicals, and compressed gases are carried by rail in tank cars. Hopper cars are freight cars used to transport dry bulk commodities such as coal, ore, grain, track ballast, and the like. This type of car is distinguished from a gondola car (US) or open wagon (UIC) in that it has opening doors on the underside or on the sides to discharge its cargo. The development of the hopper car went along with the development of automated handling of such commodities, with automated loading and unloading facilities. There are two main types of hopper car: open and covered; Covered hopper cars are used for cargo that must be protected from the elements (chiefly rain) such as grain, sugar, and fertilizer. Open cars are used for commodities such as coal, which can get wet and dry out with less harmful effect. Hopper cars have been used by railways worldwide whenever automated cargo handling has been desired. Rotary car dumpers simply invert the car to unload it, and have become the preferred unloading technology, especially in North America; they permit the use of simpler, tougher, and more compact (because sloping ends are not required) gondola cars instead of hoppers.

The heaviest trains in the world carry bulk traffic such as iron ore and coal. Loads can be 130 tonnes per wagon and tens of thousands of tonnes per train. Daqin Railway transports more than 1 million tonnes of coal to the east sea shore of China every day and in 2009 is the busiest freight line in the world Such economies of scale drive down operating costs. Some freight trains can be over 7 km long.

Containerization is a system of intermodal freight transport using standard shipping containers (also known as 'ISO containers' or 'isotainers') that can be loaded with cargo, sealed and placed onto container ships, railroad cars, and trucks. Containerization has revolutionized cargo shipping. as of 2009 approximately 90% of non bulk cargo worldwide is moved by containers stacked on transport ships; 26% of all container transshipment is carried out in China. as of 2005, some 18 million total containers make over 200 million trips per year. Use of the same basic sizes of containers across the globe has lessened the problems caused by incompatible rail gauge sizes in different countries by making transshipment between different gauge trains easier. While typically containers travel for many hundreds or even thousands kilometers on the railway, Swiss experience shows that with properly coordinated logistics, it is possible to operate a viable intermodal (truck + rail) cargo transportation system even within a country as small as Switzerland.

Most flatcars (flat wagons) cannot carry more than one standard 40 feet (12 m) container on top of another because of limited vertical clearance, even though they usually can carry the weight of two. Carrying half the possible weight is inefficient. However, if the rail line has been built with sufficient vertical clearance, a double stack car can accept a container and still leave enough clearance for another container on top. Both China and India run electrified double stack trains with overhead wiring. SP then designed the first car with ACF Industries that same year. At first it was slow to become an industry standard, then in 1984 American President Lines started working with the SP and that same year, the first all "double stack" train left Los Angeles, California for South Kearny, New Jersey, under the name of "Stacktrain" rail service. Along the way the train transferred from the SP to Conrail. It saved shippers money and now accounts for almost 70 percent of intermodal freight transport shipments in the United States, in part due to the generous vertical clearances used by U. S. railroads. These lines are diesel operated with no overhead wiring. Double stacking is also used in Australia between Adelaide, Parkes, Perth and Darwin. These are diesel only lines with no overhead wiring. Saudi Arabian Railways use double stack in its Riyadh Dammam corridor. Double stacking is used in India for selected freight only lines.

In some countries rolling highway, or rolling road, trains are used; trucks can drive straight onto the train and drive off again when the end destination is reached. A system like this is used on the Channel Tunnel between the United Kingdom and France, as well as on the Konkan Railway in India. In other countries, the tractor unit of each truck is not carried on the train, only the trailer. Piggyback trains are common in the United States, where they are also known as trailer on flat car or TOFC trains, but they have lost market share to containers (COFC), with longer, 53 foot containers frequently used for domestic shipments. There are also roadrailer vehicles, which have two sets of wheels, for use in a train, or as the trailer of a road vehicle.

Less than carload freight is any load that does not fill a boxcar or box motor or less than a Boxcar load. Historically in North America, trains might be classified as either way freight or through freight. A way freight generally carried less than carload shipments to/from a location, whose origin/destination was a rail terminal yard. This product sometimes arrived at/departed from that yard by means of a through freight. At a minimum, a way freight comprised a locomotive and caboose, to which cars called pickups and setouts were added or dropped off along the route. For convenience, smaller consignments might be carried in the caboose, which prompted some railroads to define their cabooses as way cars, although the term equally applied to boxcars used for that purpose. Way stops might be industrial sidings, stations/flag stops, settlements, or even individual residences. With the difficulty of maintaining an exact schedule, way freights yielded to scheduled passenger and through trains. They were often mixed trains that served isolated communities. Like passenger service generally, way freights and their smaller consignments became uneconomical. In North America, the latter ceased, and the public sector took over passenger transportation.

There are four major interconnecting rail networks on the Eurasian land mass, along with other smaller national networks. Most countries in the European Union participate in an auto gauge network. The United Kingdom is linked to this network via the Channel Tunnel. The Marmaray project connects Europe with eastern Turkey, Iran, and the Middle East via a rail tunnel under the Bosphorus. The 57 km Gotthard Base Tunnel improved north–south rail connections when it opened in 2016. Spain and Portugal are mostly broad gauge, though Spain has built some standard gauge lines that connect with the European high speed passenger network. A variety of electrification and signaling systems is in use, though this is less of an issue for freight; however, clearances prevent double stack service on most lines. Buffer and screw couplings are generally used between freight vehicles, although there are plans to develop an automatic coupler compatible with the Russian SA3. See Railway coupling conversion. The countries of the former Soviet Union, along with Finland and Mongolia, participate in a Russian gauge compatible network, using SA3 couplers. Major lines are electrified. Russia's Trans Siberian Railroad connects Europe with Asia, but does not have the clearances needed to carry double stack containers. Numerous connections are available between Russian gauge countries with their standard gauge neighbors in the west (throughout Europe) and south (to China, North Korea, and Iran via Turkmenistan). While the USSR had important railway connections to Turkey (from Armenia) and to Iran (from Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan enclave), these have been out of service since the early 1990s, since a number of frozen conflicts in the Caucasus region have forced the closing of the rail connections between Russia and Georgia via Abkhazia, between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and between Armenia and Turkey. China has an extensive standard gauge network. Its freight trains use Janney couplers. China's railways connect with the standard gauge network of North Korea in the east, with the Russian gauge network of Russia, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan in the north, and with the meter gauge network of Vietnam in the south. India and Pakistan operate entirely on broad gauge networks. Indo Pakistani wars and conflicts currently restrict rail traffic between the two countries to two passenger lines. There are also links from India to Bangladesh and Nepal, and from Pakistan to Iran, where a new, but little used, connection to the standard gauge network is available at Zahedan. The four major Eurasian networks link to neighboring countries and to each other at several break of gauge points. Containerization has facilitated greater movement between networks, including a Eurasian Land Bridge.

Canada, Mexico and the United States are connected by an extensive, unified standard gauge rail network. The one notable exception is the isolated Alaska Railroad, which is connected to the main network by rail barge. Due primarily to external factors such as geography and the commodity mix favoring commodities such as coal, the modal share of freight rail in North America is one of the highest worldwide. Rail freight is well standardized in North America, with Janney couplers and compatible air brakes. The main variations are in loading gauge and maximum car weight. Most trackage is owned by private companies that also operate freight trains on those tracks. Since the Staggers Rail Act of 1980, the freight rail industry in the U. S. has been largely deregulated. Freight cars are routinely interchanged between carriers, as needed, and are identified by company reporting marks and serial numbers. Most have computer readable automatic equipment identification transponders. With isolated exceptions, freight trains in North America are hauled by diesel locomotives, even on the electrified Northeast Corridor. Ongoing freight oriented development includes upgrading more lines to carry heavier and taller loads, particularly for double stack service, and building more efficient intermodal terminals and transload facilities for bulk cargo. Many railroads interchange in Chicago, and a number of improvements are underway or proposed to eliminate bottlenecks there. The U. S. Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 mandates eventual conversion to Positive Train Control signaling. In the 2010s, most North American Class I railroads have adopted some form of precision railroading.

The Guatemala railroad is currently inactive, preventing rail shipment south of Mexico. Panama has freight rail service, recently converted to standard gauge, that parallels the Panama Canal. A few other rail systems in Central America are still in operation, but most have closed. There has never been a rail line through Central America to South America.

Brazil has a large rail network, mostly metre gauge, with some broad gauge. It runs some of the heaviest iron ore trains in the world on its metre gauge network. Argentina have Indian gauge networks in the south, standard gauge in the east and metre gauge networks in the north. The metre gauge networks are connected at one point, but there has never been a broad gauge connection. (A metre gauge connection between the two broad gauge networks, the Transandine Railway was constructed but is not currently in service. See also Trans Andean railways.) Most other countries have few rail systems. The standard gauge in the east, connect with Paraguay and Uruguay.

The railways of Africa were mostly started by colonial powers to bring inland resources to port. There was little regard for eventual interconnection. As a result, there are a variety of gauge and coupler standards in use. A 3ft6in gauge network with Janney couplers serves southern Africa. East Africa uses metre gauge. North Africa uses standard gauge, but potential connection to the European standard gauge network is blocked by the Arab–Israeli conflict.

Rail developed independently in different parts of Australia and, as a result, three major rail gauges are in use. A standard gauge Trans Australian Railway spans the continent.

+ Rail freight by network, billion tonne km2019Network Gt km CountriesNorth America 2863 U. S., Canada, MexicoChina 4389Russia 2351 CIS, Finland, MongoliaIndia 607 European Union 400 27 member countriesBrazil 269 includes Bolivia (1)South Africa 115 includes Zimbabwe (1.6)Australia 64 Japan 20 South Korea 10

In 2011, North American railroads operated 1,471,736 freight cars and 31,875 locomotives, with 215,985 employees, They originated 39.53 million carloads (averaging 63 tons each) and generated $81.7 billion in freight revenue. The largest (Class 1) U. S. railroads carried 10.17 million intermodal containers and 1.72 million trailers. Intermodal traffic was 6.2% of tonnage originated and 12.6% of revenue. The largest commodities were coal, chemicals, farm products, nonmetallic minerals and intermodal. Coal alone was 43.3% of tonnage and 24.7% of revenue. The average haul was 917 miles. Within the U. S. railroads carry 39.9% of freight by ton mile, followed by trucks (33.4%), oil pipelines (14.3%), barges (12%) and air (0.3%). Railways carried 17.1% of EU freight in terms of tonne km, compared to road transport (76.4%) and inland waterways (6.5%).