Designing a Geo-Strategic Railway Freight Network in Brazil Using GIS

Cassiano A. Isler, Yesid Asaff and Marin Marinov
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Cassiano A. Isler: Transportation Engineering Department, Escola Politécnica, University of São Paulo, São Paulo 05508-070, Brazil
Yesid Asaff: Mobility Engineering Department, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Joinville 89219-600, Brazil
Marin Marinov: School of Engineering and Applied Science, Engineering Systems and Supply Chain Management, Aston University, Birmingham B4 7ET, UK

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-21

Abstract: The sustainable development of geo-strategic transport networks plays a key role to meet the current expansion of the demand for commerce and economic growth. In this paper, a new geo-strategic railway network for freight services is designed with the purpose of meeting the needs of current and future demands for freight transport in the state of Santa Catarina, South Brazil. The freight flows of bulk cargo, containers, and refrigerated and liquid cargo observed in 2005 and 2015 and expected for 2023 have been analyzed and assigned to a fully connected railway network. The number of trains to meet all the demands has been identified. The links that would have a minimum number of daily trains running on them have also been identified and analyzed. New assignments are proposed and visualized using GIS. Next, location and technical specifications of specialized intermodal terminals focused on the customers’ and operators’ needs are discussed. The study shows that technological specifications for terminal operations play an important role when dealing with multiple freight types and contribute to better use of the existing infrastructure.

Keywords: geo-strategic railway network design; freight transport; intermodal terminal; GIS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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