Conclusions (ctd)
To succeed, freight revenue management must be integrated within a higher level capacity management framework to ensure that operating resources are properly positioned to meet anticipated demands -- as SNCF and SDT have already done for passenger applications.
- Implicitly assumed is the ability to run trains on time, and that connections can be made in terminals as scheduled. This would be facilitated by moving towards a preplanned, scheduled train operation.
- A freight capacity management system would be origin destination demand-driven and would address global issues of resource management such as locomotive and crew management, the availability of rail line and terminal schedule slots, and empty equipment distribution.
- Integrating capacity management into a revenue management framework provides, for the first time, an ability to understand the revenue as well as cost implications of a decision to provide capacity, and the ability to incorporate that information into real time decision making.