Evaluating the competitiveness of railways in timber transports with discrete-event simulation

Railway liberalisation in Europe started with UK's separation of railway operations and infrastructure in the mid-1990s. From the beginning of 2007 freight operations have also been operating under free competition in Finland, where freight volume is dominated by forest industry. New entrants will most probably try to utilise the volume of this largest sub-sector. In this study, we describe and evaluate a railway transportation concept for timber by using simulation. Results suggest that the concept could be successfully applied in the timber transportation market. Not only could it be competitive over current railway transportation distances, but possibly also over shorter distances now serviced solely by road transport.