Scientific paper ID 467 : 2010/1

A major issue is that over the last decade many customers needs have changed and therefore new services have emerged (e.g., Non-Bulk Services by Rail) while some other services have been abandoned by some rail freight organizations in Europe (e.g., Single Wagon Load). New services require new behaviour of the systems employing new equipment. Undoubtedly, this situation has a direct effect on the overall level of performance of the rail freight organizations and here the question is: what is the current level of compatibility between existing freight wagon fleet, loading units and freight transportation services by rail and how we assess it? This situation motivated us to develop this concept paper aiming at expressing our concerns regarding the lack of a uniformed performance assessment approach for analysing the levels of compatibility between rail freight wagons, loading units and freight transportation services by rail.