CARGOSPEED - Cargo Rail Road Interchange at Speed
Overview
Background & policy context:
The CARGOSPEED project is funded by the European Commission, DG TREN and is attached to Subprogramme Area: Key Action Land Transport and Marine Technologies. CargoSpeed officially started on 1st January 2001 and had originally a duration of 30 months. The project has been granted an extension with a new completion date of end of July 2004. The project aimed at integrating the well-known RoRo technology into the rail industry, due to the following situation:
- The intermodal transfer times currently required for road to rail interchanges make it uneconomic to use for stage distances of under 500 km;
- There are hundreds of thousands of standard non-liftable semitrailers in Europe;
- There is strong resistance from the Road haulage industry to invest in the costly specialist trailers required by existing piggyback Lift On - Lift Off solutions.
Objectives:
CargoSpeed - Cargo rail/road interchange at Speed - supports the sustainable flow of cargo from road to rail and addresses the congestion problems on the roads within Europe. The system reduces the costs for road/rail intermodalism and increases the speed of the operation at combined terminals. It halves the economic break-even distance for intermodal freight movements. The reduction of costs of the complete system in comparison to common techniques amounts to 30 %. Outcome of the project are a prototype including a CargoSpeed rail -wagon and the transfer mechanism. A specific wellfloor for the wagon and a Pop-up lifting and turning mechanism was constructed and demonstrated. In order to achieve a reliable and cost efficient system a simulation and animation of the terminal was prepared and comprehensive dissemination and exploitation measurements are carried out. The marketability has been proven.
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