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What type of involvement of the operator will guarantee the best chances of success for a light rail project? This research has carefully analysed five recent projects in Europe, Nottingham, The Hague, Saarbrucken, Montpellier and Stockholm, and defines what a suitable role for the operator can be.

De aanleiding voor dit afstudeerwerk was de constatering van Holland Railconsult dat hun begrotingen vaak lager waren dan het laagste bod bij een aanbesteding en dat zij vermoedden dat er een grotere marge rondom de begroting benodigd is om met een bepaalde betrouwbaarheid het laagste bod te vangen dan men in eerste instantie dacht. Men wilde graag weten of dit bij andere ingenieursbureaus eveneens het geval is. Tevens was men geïnteresseerd in de scherpte en nauwkeurigheid van de eigen begrotingen en die van concurrerende ingenieursbureaus. Enerzijds beweren aannemers vaak dat zij beter kunnen calculeren dan een ingenieursbureau. Zij hebben de uitvoeringservaring en moeten het werk ook echt maken voor de prijs die zij indienen. Anderzijds menen ingenieursbureaus dat zij juist nauwkeuriger kunnen calculeren omdat ze het ontwerp, dat zij zelf hebben gemaakt, beter kennen. De uiteindelijke begroting van de opdrachtgever en de bieding van een aannemer bestaan uit de kostprijs plus onder andere de winst. Welk winstpercentage een aannemer in rekening brengt is voor een opdrachtgever echter vaak moeilijk in te schatien. Dit is onder meer afhankelijk van de marktsituatie, maar ook van de situatie binnen het bedrijf zelf. In dit rapport zijn de scherpte en nauwkeurigheid van begrotingen van Holland Railconsult, DHV en de Bouwdienst van Rijkswaterstaat bepaald. Tevens is met behulp van modellen nagegaan wat de invloed is geweest van vooroverleg op de biedingen van de aannemers. Ook is onderzocht of een second opinion bij de bepaling van de begroting voor een hogere nauwkeurigheid kan zorgen. De nauwkeurigheid en de scherpte van begrotingen. Voordat verder wordt ingegaan op de scherpte en de nauwkeurigheid van de begroting wordt eerst toegelicht wat hieronder wordt verstaan. Scherpte is een relatief begrip, indien een begroting lager is dan een bieding, dan is de begroting scherper dan dat bod en het bod minder scherp dan de begroting. In dit rapport is de scherpte van de begrotingen van de drie bedrijven onderzocht ten opzichte van het gemiddelde bod bij een aanbesteding. Onder nauwkeurigheid wordt de variatiecoHficient rondom de betreffende begroting (of bieding) verstaan. Hoe kleiner deze is, des te nauwkeuriger de begroting (of bieding) is. De nauwkeurigheid en scherpte van de begroting bleken voor de ter beschikking gestelde projecten per ingenieursbureau behoorlijk te verschillen. De nauwkeurigheid van de begrotingen van Holland Railconsult, DHV en Rijkswaterstaat waren vóór Zembla (de televisie-uitzending van 9 november 2001 waarin dhr. Bos zijn onthulling deed) respectievelijk 11 %, 10 % en 21 % terwijl de variatiecoHficient van de biedingen 5 % was. De reden voor het grote verschil tussen de variatiecoHficient van de biedingen voor Zembla en de variatiecoëfficient van de begroting van de ingenieursbureaus is vermoedelijk het bij laten zakken van de biedingen door de aannemers. Het grote verschil in variatiecoHficient tussen Rijkswaterstaat enerzijds en Holland Railconsult en DHV anderzijds wordt mogelijk veroorzaakt door het feit dat Rijkswaterstaat de marktsituatie niet meeneemt in de begroting. DHV en Holland Railconsult doen dit namelijk meestal wel. Ook de scherpte van de begroting verschilde per bedrijf. Holland Railconsult zat gemiddeld 7 % onder het gemiddelde bod, DHV 12 % daarboven terwijl Rijkswaterstaat er gemiddeld 6 % onder zat.

A method is developed that deals with uncertainties concerning the possible future train services and to what extent different infrastructure alternatives accommodate these train services. A case study is done for the rail line The Hague - Rotterdam. Amongst other methods, a policy analysis approach, a traffic modeling program and a net present value method has been used. The result is a method that enables the rail sector to figure out what infrastructure alternative accommodates what kind of train service. Furthermore, for the line The Hague - Rotterdam this includes 3 different train services tested on 4 infrastructure alternatives. Based on the net present values choices can be made what alterenative to choose when a train service is to be implemented.

With a sizeable expected growth of demand for rail transport in the Netherlands the coming decades, and limited resources for expansion of the rail network, intensified utilization of the infrastructure is to be expected. To adequately manage this growth a ppropriate tools for policy analysis are needed. Because of the unstructuredness of many problems in the rail sector and decision-making in a network type environment additional scrutiny is placed on these tools. By performing a modelling study into the interrelations of modal split, mobility and operations using System Dynamics, the possibilities and pitfalls of using this method for policy analysis in Dutch rail system have been explored. Although classical policy analysis has proven to be possible, modelling the operational part of the system has proven challenging. Alternative usages of System Dynamics for enhancing policy analysis, by improving understanding about the complex dynamic behaviour of the system are suggested.

In this thesis, transport infrastructure slot allocation has been studied, focusing on selection slot allocation, i.e. on longer-term slot allocation decisions determining the traffic patterns served by infrastructure bottlenecks, rather than timetable-related slot allocation problems. The allocation of infrastructure capacity among carriers is a major issue in various transport infrastructure sectors, and therefore a theoretical framework on slot allocation would be desirable to support rational decision-making on slot allocation. The current state-of-the-art of slot allocation research does not provide such a theoretical framework, and therefore a theoretical framework to analyze slot allocation problems has been developed in this thesis. The first step in the development of a theoretical framework to analyze slot allocation problems has been the specification of a conceptual framework, which includes the definition of key concepts such as capacity. Capacity has been defined as being dependent on conditions such as composition of traffic and traffic context as well as assumptions about the desired balance between capacity and quality-of-service. The next step was to review the current application of slot allocation in the railway and aviation sectors, and the potential application of slot allocation in the road and navigation sectors. Slot allocation is currently applied in the railway and aviation sectors, and slot allocation may potentially be applied in other sectors. This thesis introduces the important distinction between selection and scheduling slot allocation. In both the railway and aviation sectors, the tradition has been to integrate selection and scheduling slot allocation. This thesis, however, considers selection slot allocation as a separate slot allocation level. Separating selection and scheduling slot allocation enables the application to each level of different rules with respect to slot validity, valuation of alternative slot requests, etc. The desired characteristics of selection slot allocation have been formulated in this thesis by analyzing the main desires of carriers and other interested parties such as shippers and authorities. It has been concluded that selection slots should be valid for a significantly longer period than scheduling slots, and a semi-static slot allocation procedure has been proposed. Furthermore, the acceptability principle has been introduced as a basis to specify desired slot size. However, the specification of standard basic slots by the allocation body (at different levels to attain differentiation of slot size) is desirable. A semi-static slot allocation procedure implies that selection slot allocation decisions may be based on an explicit evaluation of selection slot requests. The selection problem may be analyzed using congestion theory, resulting in a generic specification of traffic supply and demand. The next step is to specify traffic supply in more detail by specifying capacity constraints. Examining various types of primary traffic processes, traffic service processes, and traffic externalities, capacity constraints have been formulated, which may be applied to different types of bottlenecks. Three categories of capacity constraints have been distinguished, i.e. homogeneous capacity constraints, linear capacity constraints, and non-linear capacity constraints. The next step is the specification of objectives. The (primary) objective of slot allocation may usually be specified as a linear objective function. Depending on the type and number of capacity constraints, various instances of selection slot allocation decision problems may be formulated. The corresponding optimization problems may be solved using an exact solution algorithm, but for various reasons this thesis proposes a greedy approximation instead. Besides a standard greedy algorithm for selection problems with a single type of capacity constraint, an extended greedy algorithm has been developed to solve problems with two or more different types of capacity constraints. The latter algorithm has been tested for a hypothetical case study. Three main conclusions have been formulated in this thesis. The first main conclusion is that selection and scheduling should be considered as separate slot allocation levels having a hierarchical relationship. Selection slot allocation is of primary importance and scheduling slot allocation is only of secondary importance, because selection decisions determine which traffic is facilitated and which is not. The second main conclusion is that the validity of slots is a compromise between stability and flexibility. To ensure a sufficient level of stability, a validity of at least 5 years seems reasonable for selection slots. To ensure a reasonable level of flexibility, infinite validity of selection slots (historic rights) is not desirable, and at least every timetable season the opportunity should be offered to reserve selection slots. The final main conclusion is that the objec-tives and constraints of the selection problem can be modeled as linear functions, and the resulting binary linear programming problem can best be solved with the greedy efficiency algorithm presented in this thesis. This efficiency algorithm does not provide an exact solution of the binary linear programming problem, but its results are more robust and are easier to interpret than exact solution approaches.

Zoetermeer in The Netherlands. During peak hours the frequency on some trajectories is about 24 vehicles an hour. Dealing with these high frequencies and offering travelers a high quality product, according to waiting times as well as the probability of getting a seat, the operator designed a three step controlling philosophy. The first step is to prevent deviations to occur: the infrastructure is exclusive right of way as much as possible and at intersections RandstadRail gets priority over the other traffic. RandstadRail stops at every stop and never leaves before the scheduled time. The second step in the philosophy is dealing with deviations by planning extra time in the schedule at stops, trajectories and terminals. Small deviations can be solved in this way. The final step to get vehicles back on schedule is done by the traffic control centre: they have a total overview of all vehicles and they can respond to disturbances like slowing down vehicles nearby a delayed vehicle. Experiencing major disturbances rerouting and shortening of lines is possible. RandstadRail is in operation since 2007. The actual data of the performance is used to analyze the actual effects of the control philosophy. It is shown that due to the applied measures the variability of the driving times is reduced. Punctuality has increased as well. This leads to a higher level of service, creating shorter travel times, a better distribution of passengers over the vehicles.

Het doel van dit afstudeeronderzoek is het optimaal integreren van een onderbouwde veiligheidsfilosofie in het ontwerp van de tunnel onder het Groene Hart ten behoeve van de HSL-Zuid. In dit eerste deelrapport is de veiligheidsfilosofie voor de HSL-Zuid vergeleken met de veiligheid bij andere infrastructurele projecten. Het resultaat van deze vergelijking vormt de basis voor de methodiek waarmee in deelrapport II de veiligheid voor de boortunnel onder het Groene Hart nader wordt uitgewerkt. Deelrapport III bevat de analyses van veiligheid bij infrastructurele projecten en overige achtergrondinformatie. Deelrapport I bevat de vergelijking van de verschillende projecten op basis van een aantal criteria. Het resultaat is een zestal methoden van omgaan met veiligheid, conflicten op verschillende niveaus, grote verschillen in de belangen van de betrokken partijen en grote verschillen in de uiteindelijke keuze van veiligheidsmaatregelen. Op basis van deze vergelijking is een aantal aanvullingen op het Integraal VeiligheidsPlan voor de HSL-Zuid voorgesteld. De belangrijkste aanbeveling is om veiligheid multidisciplinair te benaderen door in een vroegtijdig stadium de belangen van de verschillende belanghebbenden te analyseren. De tweede stap in de multidisciplinaire benadering is het uitvoeren van een probabilistische analyse van het integrale vervoerssysteem, waarna in de derde en belangrijkste stap de interpretatie en de uitwerking van de eisen in de probabilistische analyse plaatsvindt. Deze derde stap is essentieel doordat het volledige vervoerssysteem moet voldoen aan de topeisen van het Integraal VeiligheidsPlan en een balans gevonden moet worden in de verschillende belangen van de betrokken partijen. Belangen die een rol spelen zijn economische belangen, de perceptie van de toekomstige gebruikers en de belangen van hulpverlenende diensten. Een tweede aanbeveling is om de normering van het maatschappelijk risico aan te passen en een stricter onderscheid te maken in het opstellen en onderbouwen van de normering en vervolgens het toetsen van het systeem aan de normering. In het Integraal VeiligheidsPlan worden twee topeisen onderscheiden, de Karakteristieke Waarde (KW) voor het maatschappelijk risico en het Persoonlijk Risico (PR) voor het risico van de individuele reiziger. Voorgesteld wordt om de KW te verhogen tot 14,8 slachtoffers per jaar voor het gehele systeem. Aanbevolen wordt om het PR evenredig toe te delen over het traject omdat een onevenredige verdeling moeilijk eenduidig uitlegbaar en daardoor niet acceptabel is. De KW dient in principe ook evenredig over het systeem verdeeld te worden, waarbij een integrale afweging uitsluitsel moet geven over de mate van evenredigheid. Een integrale afweging die plaats vindt op basis van aspecten als bijvoorbeeld inpassing in de omgeving, milieu-overlast, kostenaspecten en veiligheid. Deelrapport II bevat de specificatie van de veiligheidsfilosofie naar de veiligheid voor de boortunnel onder het Groene Hart. Een referentie-ontwerp is geformuleerd waarvan het risiconiveau met behulp van een risico-analyse is gekwantificeerd. Ook het effect van een aantal aanvullende veiligheidsmaatregelen in het ontwerp is gekwantificeerd. De verschillende veiligheidsmaatregelen zijn onderverdeeld naar de schakels in de veiligheidsketen, zoals die door het Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken zijn geïntroduceerd. Deze keten bestaat uit de schakels Pro-actie, Preventie, Preparatie, Repressie en Nazorg. Het referentie-ontwerp op basis waarvan de veiligheidsmaatregelen zijn vergeleken omvat het integrale systeem van een trein die door een tunnel rijdt. Het referentie-ontwerp bestaat uit de subsystemen infrastructuur, verkeersleiding, procesvoering, beveiliging trein & baan en het rollend materieel. Deelrapport III bevat een aantal analyses van veiligheid bij infrastructurele projecten. Een analyse is gemaakt van de integratie van veiligheid in het ontwerp van de Störebelttunnel in Denemarken, de Channel Tunnel Rail Link in Engeland, de Kanaaltunnel, de Westerschelde Oeververbinding en de Willemspoortunnel in Rotterdam. De analyses bevatten de gehanteerde veiligheidsfilosofie en de onderbouwing van de uiteindelijk gekozen veiligheidsmaatregelen. Deze analyses vormen de basis voor de vergelijking in deelrapport I.

A well designed public transportation system can provide convenience to the public, increase the profit of the transportation company, and reduce the cost to the society as a whole. The depot is an important part in the study of transportation systems. The choice of the capacity of the depots is a strategic decision. It will constrain the possible tactical decisions (such as vehicle planning) for a long time, due to the life-span of the infrastructure. It is therefore important to study the impact of the options before they are implemented. The transportation company now is facing the problem that there is no appropriate tool in the decision support system to assess the capacity of the depots and the vehicle planning on the deadhead-kilometer (non-value added trips) and the robustess of the service. The simulation model is an appropriate method for the main part of the study. It can be used to evaluate the key performance indicators of deadhead-kilometer and average delay time, to study the complex interactions among the different elements, and to improve the understanding of the behaviors of the transportation system. The simulation model is useful for evaluating both strategic decisions and tactical decisions. The analyzing tool is designed following the methodology of systems engineering. First the requirements were gathered and translated into specification. The design was then conducted to fulfill the requirements on the conceptual level. Specification of the key classes were then concluded from their functionalities and relationships. The detail design came out with detailed attributions and methods of the classes. The analysis is based on a part of the network which consists of five service lines. According to the analysis, compared to the current design (Scheveningen, Zichtenburg and Lijsterbes), the future alternative with “Remise Zuid” depot and closing down “Lijsterbes” depot achieves 18% reduction on average delay time, but with a cost of 15% of increase in deadhead-kilometer. With the ratings obtained from the policy advisors of HTM, the alternative with “Remise Zuid” outperforms the design of current situation on the overall performance. Though the methodology applies to the entire network, the analysis results so far portaits the impact on these five lines. A more comprehensive study can be conducted with the same method and the input data covering all the operating lines. Some improvement can be made on the management of depots by a better the training of the employees and a clearer definition of job responsibilities.

Rail intermodal services are an alternative to all-road services if the average transport time offered by these services is at least comparable. One of the determinants of transport time is how well actors in the transport chain cooperate. In this paper it is shown that substantial improvements in rail transport time are possible if these actors improve their cooperation substantially. This goes along with relatively moderate investments (a few million Euros per case). Such investments may then be regarded as a cost-effective alternative for (multi-billion) investments in rail infrastructure. This is particularly relevant in an era where budgets for rail infrastructure are either limited or create an additional burden for already debt-ridden countries.

Public transport systems have been targets in several terrorist attacks, notably in recent years, resulting in tight security measures worldwide. However, individuals’ privacy and liberty often conflict with efforts towards safety and security, making it difficult to assess the implications of security measures balanced against the costs (e.g., citizens may be stopped, searched and asked to provide personal identification data to authorities without any particular reason). Henceforth, our research question asks, ‘‘to what extent would people sacrifice their right to privacy and liberty in exchange for potentially safer and more secure travel?” This paper uses a stated choice experiment to quantify individuals’ tradeoffs between privacy and security within a real-life context, namely rail travel in the UK. Using a nationwide sample, the empirical analysis yields the importance of improvements in the security infrastructure and identifies areas of concern with regard to privacy and liberty controlling for travel related factors. Further, trade-offs across different security measures for rail travel are quantified in terms of individuals’ willingness-to-pay extra on top of the average ticket price.

The implementation of hub-and-spoke networks in intermodal transport is suggested as one of the potential solutions for helping to increase the intermodal market share. Traditionally, trains are shunted at hubs; this is a time-consuming process. Since the early 1990s a new type of intermodal terminal, specifically designed for fast tran-shipment at nodes in hub-and-spoke networks, has been introduced in Europe. These hub terminals could replace this time-consuming shunting. Studies on the new hub terminals suggest that they may perform more efficiently than shunting yards. However, a systematic comparison to reveal the operational and costs differences be-tween shunting and these new hub-terminals for a broad range of situations still lacks. The main objective of the study was to develop a model to identify favourable opera-tional conditions for new hub terminals to be implemented and to quantify their op-erational performances in relation to alternative hub exchange facilities. Simulation models were developed to study rail-rail exchange operations at new hub-terminals, hump and flat shuntings yard and road-rail terminals.

Short-wave irregularities in the wheel-rail interface are at the basis of track and vehicle damage and deterioration. On the short term, they result into high dynamic train-track interaction forces and a high energy input into the system that must be dissipated in the different system components or "levels", leading on its turn to progressive deterioration on the long term. Furthermore, the short-wave defects grow into longer defects in the track geometry, due to the fact that the train is a travelling multi-body mass-spring system. The lifetime of the track and its components can be extended by adjusting the "path" of the dissipated power spectrum through the system and adjusting component and system properties with respect to their hysteretic behaviour. Instead of life-time extension, such measures may also aim at an extension of maintenance intervals, which is important to optimise the availability of e.g. high-speed lines. The present study investigates two particular types of short defects in detail: rail welds and wheel flats. In longitudinal direction and on a global scale, the contact between a rolling wheel and a rail can be distinguished into continuous single-point contact and transient double-point contact. The contact type that occurs depends on the actual geometry of the wheel-rail interface in the running direction. The first contact type leads to a dynamic amplification of the static axle load, whereas the second leads to wheel-rail impact. Especially the latter contact type is detrimental to the rail system and should be prevented as much as possible or detected at an early stage. The introduction of rail welds instead of the traditionally bolted connections reduced the dynamic forces at rail joints globally with a factor three. However, welds remain potential damage initiators due to the local geometrical and metallurgical discontinuity. Investigations show an approximately linear relationship between the extreme value of the dynamic wheel-rail contact force at a weld, the maximum absolute rail inclination and the train speed. The geometry of rail welds is traditionally assessed with the principle of vertical tolerances. A new assessment method for rail welds is proposed, with norm values for the allowable inclination depending on the line section train speed. This method is based on a relatively strong correlation between discretised maximum rail geometry inclinations (first derivatives) and extreme dynamic wheel-rail contact forces, relative to the poor correlation between tolerances and extreme forces. The method aims at a reduction and uniformisation of dynamic contact forces at rail welds, in order to avoid deterioration. Wheel flats are commonly assessed on the basis of their length and/or depth, or automatically detected by wheel impact load detectors in the track. This study has shown that the minimum circumferential wheel tread curvature is the critical parameter that governs the dynamic wheel-rail interaction in the presence of wheel flats. It determines which contact type occurs for a given flat geometry: continuous single-point contact, in the subcritical speed regime, or transient double-point contact, in the transcritical speed regime. It furthermore determines the magnitude of the contact force in the subcritical regime. Both speed regimes are shown to exhibit essentially different features with respect to the dynamic wheel-rail interaction: the track stiffness governs the interaction for low train speeds and long flats, whereas for high speeds and/or short flats the inertial properties of the wheel and the rail govern the interaction. The force-speed relationship is non-linear in the first regime, whereas linearity is a good approximation in the second regime.

In this thesis, wheel/rail interface optimisation, and particularly the problems of wheel and rail profile design are considered. The research task pursued by this thesis engenders investigation of a range of problems. First, geometric properties of contact between wheel and rail are investigated. Then, physical properties of rolling contact between wheel and rail are studied with the help of contact mechanics. Railway vehicle dynamics are then considered using multibody dynamic approach. Finally, a numerical optimisation method is used for the design of the wheel profile. All these disciplines are combined in one wheel (rail) profile design procedure. The wheel (rail) profile design procedure is developed with the idea that the rolling radius difference (RRD) function, to a large extent, describes the wheel/rail contact properties. Therefore, for a known optimal RRD function, a wheel profile that delivers the required contact properties defined by this RRD can be determined. Wheel and rail profile measurements are used to analyse wheelset contact properties in order to design the target RRD function. The problem of finding a wheel profile corresponding to the target RRD function is formulated as an optimisation problem. The dynamic performance of a vehicle with the designed wheel profile is tested for stability, wear, and dynamic contact stresses using the ADAMS/Rail computer package. In this research, three railway system types are considered - tram, metro, and conventional railway. Using the developed design procedure, new wheel profiles are designed for each above mentioned case, solving for, respectively, the problems of flange wear, stability (as a result of excessive tread wear), and RCF. In the first two cases, wheel profiles were successfully implemented on the respective networks. Successful application of the design procedure to real-life problems has proven its usability and expediency.

Work conducted within REORIENT, a Sixth Framework project for the European Commission (EC), is described. One objective of REORIENT was to explain the status of transformation of the European railway sector into a functionally integrated, liberalized, interoperable system. The status of interoperability within and between eleven countries in a corridor stretching from Greece to the Nordic countries was assessed, and conditions in the countries that appear to be barriers to achieving the EC’s goals were identified. (Barriers were defined as shortcomings in conditions that would facilitate the implementation of requirements presumed by the EC to lead to seamless international freight transport (“implementation conditions”)). The primary data source for the analysis was a set of interviews with the major actors and stakeholders associated with each country’s rail freight system. The (qualitative) information from the interviews was translated into numeric scores, which were subjected to statistical analysis. The primary objective of the statistical analysis was to provide an assessment of the relationships between the requirements and the implementation conditions. The statistical analysis involved both the identification of relevant relationships and an assessment of the strength of these relationships. Overall, we found that there was considerable variation in interoperability status across the countries on practically all of the requirements. However, there was also considerable variation in the status of the implementation conditions across the countries. As a result, we found that most of the variability was able to be explained by relationships that were found to exist between the requirements and implementation conditions. A ‘Barrier Significance Score’ (BSS) was computed for each country and for each implementation condition. These scores were used to assess the relative importance of barriers across the countries, and to identify the most critical barriers to be removed in order to improve interoperability. Large differences in BSS’s were found among countries. In general there are fewer barriers in Nordic countries and more barriers in the south.

Developing rail freight sector in the EU is desirable from both a political-social point of view and from a market business point of view. Fragmentation in the national railway systems impedes, in many ways, social and economic benefits in the liberalised EU railway market. The need for innovative governance to deal with the fragmentation problems is therefore pressing. This paper sets out an innovative governance framework – MCC for the governing of the European rail freight domain. MCC is problem-driven, market-oriented and corridor-based. It puts the lens on the forming of horizontal transnational collaboration next to and in relation to the existing vertically-structured institutional arrangement. The design of the framework is based on multidisciplinary approach, where theories like multi-level governance, supply chain management, and geographic concepts such as corridors and networks are integrated. This governance framework is then employed to preliminary assess the existing governance practices such as policy guidelines and directives, as well as emergent governance developments such as transport corridors developed from both business and research projects. Three types of governance practices are derived from the assessment – legislative governance, corridor governance and MCC governance. The results contribute to a better policy making to accelerate the growth in the EU rail freight industry and the advancement of strategic management, spatial planning and organisation theory.