A Dynamic Model for Evaluating the Utility of Railway Transit Corridors: a Case Study of Bandar Abbas- Sarakhs Corridor

Currently, road transportation is the main mode of freight transit in Iran. About 90% of freight transit is through this mode of transportation. This is not in line with the transportation policies. Based on such policies 70% of the freight transit need to be through road transportation and 30% of the freight transit need to go through rail transportation. However, Iran's railway network is very wide and the share of railway in freight transit can be increased. Therefore, it is important to recognize the effective factors that can increase the share of rail transit. The purpose of this research is to recognize the factors that can improve the utility of railway transit corridors and to advance the competitive position of railway in freight transit. The concepts of utility and transit are described. The factors affecting the utility of railway transit corridors from the perspective of the owner of goods are determined by making a literature review and investigating the opinions of experts. These factors include transportation cost, commercial speed, reliability, safety, the system of tracing wagons and service frequency. A utility function for Bandar Abbas- Sarakhs corridor is developed that is based on the aforementioned factors. A dynamic model to evaluate the utility of the corridor is developed. After verifying the model, it is used for simulation of 20 years of service by using PLE software. The results of the simulation show that with simultaneous improvement in reliability, the system of tracing wagons at commercial speed also offering discount on the cost of transportation according to the demand of the owner of goods can play a significant role in increasing the utility of Bandar Abbas- Sarakhs corridor. Changing only one factor will not result in major changes in the utility of the corridor.