Criteria for the selection of railway stations for the placement of freight terminals for handling “Cold Express” container trains

Abstract

An approach to the selection of locations for compact container sites at railway stations of main railway lines for carrying out freight operations with transit container trains is described on the example of an investment project of the JSC “Russian Railways” for organizing transportation by “Cold Express” trains. To ensure the possibility of organizing the motion of container freight trains with its reception at the station directly to the loading and unloading front, certain conditions listed in the article must be met. The approach is based on the principle of minimizing costs and maintaining the operational parameters of the reconstructed railway stations while implementing the principles of container logistics. It was concluded that the reference railway station for placing on it a container terminal specializing in handling container transport trains (including “Cold Express” trains) should be a station that has a little-used electrified receiving-departure track with a length of at least 1050 m, for which there is the possibility of receiving and departure trains in all directions and near which there is an open freight area with a hard surface with the possibility of approaching trucks. Also, conditions for the unimpeded operation of loading equipment should be ensured, i. e. there should be no obstacles in the form of pedestrian bridges and overhead catenary supports. On the pilot route Vladivostok—Moscow—St. Petersburg, 18 stations were selected, located in large cities or tend towards large cities. The analysis showed that in real conditions there are no stations that fully meet these criteria, from which it was concluded that it was necessary to carry out capital-intensive measures of various volumes associated with the achievement of the necessary parameters of the stations, such as electrification or lengthening of the track, reconstruction of the station necks, arrangement of the site, car entrances, as well as other measures.