EUFRANET (European Freight Railway Network) is a project founded by the European Commission under the transport RTD programme of the 4th Framework Programme. The goals of the EUFRANET project are to contribute efficiently to the economic and social growth of Europe through the improvement of rail transport. It aims to identify and evaluate a Trans-European rail network mainly dedicated to freight transportation. Therefore this paper tries to discuss the scenarios and solutions proposed by EUFRANET to improve the rail network and operating system based on a new organisation and new technologies. The EUFRANET project has evolved due to the problems of the decline in rail usage for freight in Europe and the insufficient quality of current rail service offered in competition with that offered by road. Faced with this situation, an hypothesis of a rail freight priority is explored in the context of reconstruction of the sector: this led to the concept of the EUFRANET network which cannot be achieved without proposing simultaneously new rail operating systems and removal of existing barriers. The scope of EUFRANET is the European market, and compliments the current approach of European freight policy discussed by member states and the commission. This project is also a first application of a general way in which to bring together the definition of the simulation of flow and the strategy evaluation as they are highlighted in several different projects.
Samenvatting