Shunt-E 4.0—Autonomous Zero Emission Shunting Processes in Port and Hinterland Railway Operations

Abstract

: The port railway operation in Germany and Europe is not least due to its long history of technological and regulatory developments characterized by a high number of players and a lack of comprehensive planning and optimization of all relevant processes. Innovative technologies and business processes are therefore useful and needed to achieve key steps on the way to an overall optimization of rail transport within global supply chains. A substantial part of the European rail freight transport has its origin or its destination in an inland or sea port. Considering the railway system, ports play a more important role for urgently needed innovations than the pure interfaces between sea and land transport. Especially ports with their own railway system have an own responsibility in this matter. Insofar the goal of the Bremen Port Railway—which already now has a leading share of railway in modal split in Europe—is to exploit the opportunities offered by digitalization. Significant steps for this are the optimization and gradually automatization of rail operational processes on the last mile including modern and transparent IT systems and the designing of autonomous shunting processes. Together with research partners ISL (Institute of Shipping Economics and Logistics Bremen), BIBA (Bremen Institute for Production and Logistics) and IVE (Institute for Transport, Railway Construction and Operation in Brunswick) and in connection with associated business partners the project Rang-E has been applied for at the Ministry of Transport in the funding initiative IHATEC (Innovated HArbour TEChnologies)—and had won a grant to perform the proposed work. Basic thoughts are outlined in the following.