Economic and Ecological Evaluation of the Roll on - Roll off railway service
Click here to read paper in pdf format Abstract:- The share of railways in total freight traffic has declined from 89% in 1950-51 to 30% in 2011-12. [1] Two key reasons behind this trend are- first is the cross subsidization model on which Indian railways (IR) operates and second it Railway cannot provide door to door services. Road based goods movement (trucks) can provide door to door services but its operating cost, diesel consumption and co2 emission are higher than railways. In Roll on - roll of (Ro-Ro) services, trucks are loaded to train on point A of Ro-Ro then transported on rail ways and on reaching point B of Ro-Ro, trucks resume their road journey and provide door services. Objective of this paper is to study the Economic and Ecological impact of the Ro-Ro service. Results of this study shows that the Ro-Ro service is win - win for all stakeholders. It earns profit for railways, reduces operating cost to truckers, and reduces diesel consumption and co2 em...