Sustainable performance assessment of rail freight transportation using triple bottom line approach: An application to Indian Railways

Nevil Gandhi, Ravi Kant and Jitesh Thakkar

Transport Policy, 2022, vol. 128, issue C, 254-273

Abstract: Freight transportation provides a significant contribution to the growth of national economies. The uncontrollable greenhouse gas emissions have caught the attention of governments worldwide to achieve sustainability in freight transportation. This research aims to assess the performance of sustainable rail freight transportation (SRFT) using twelve sustainability indicators. We employed the proposed triple bottom line framework for SRFT performance evaluation of Indian Railways (IR). We applied content analysis for data collection from IR's annual reports, yearbooks, and annual statistical statements between the financial year 2007–08 and 2020–21. Sustainability assessment results revealed that IR delivered impressive environmental and social performances, while economic indicators reported mixed results. IR performed better in energy efficiency, emission factor, mean load factor, average unit cost, net tonne-km per wagon per day, accident rate, and average annual wage per employee. IR delivered poor results in land usage, freight market share, the average speed of freight trains, and employment generated during the assessment period. A sustainable performance comparison between rail and road freight transport revealed that IR needs to revamp freight transportation policies to increase its market share against road transport. An intermodal railroad should be the preferred mode of freight transport. The proposed comprehensive framework can be used as a benchmarking tool to compare the SRFT performance of emerging economies. The article concluded with managerial recommendations to facilitate policymakers in decisions regarding SRFT.

Keywords: Sustainable rail freight transportation; Triple bottom line indicators; Indian railways; Content analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967070X22002426
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:trapol:v:128:y:2022:i:c:p:254-273

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
https://shop.elsevie ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2022.08.023

Access Statistics for this article

Transport Policy is currently edited by Y. Hayashi

More articles in Transport Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().