Prihláste sa na odber noviniek
Unit trains are loaded with one type of goods and connect only two places. This is incomparably easier to organise from the point of view of work, costs and time associated with it than with mixed freight trains. This service is offered in Slovakia only by ZSSK CARGO. So, let's look at how the logistics process of wagonloads and groups of wagons works and how the core of their operation is marshalling yards – operates.
The logistics process of wagonloads and groups of wagons could be compared to sending parcels through the post office. The most lucrative business for freight railway companies is unit trains. We can compare them to when a customer can load an entire truck with his load on the road. However, many customers still need to transport goods not in such large quantities regularly. Similar to you when you need to send a package or have a package delivered from an online store. You don't order a whole truck for this purpose. It's the same on the railway - many customers need to transport a single wagon (which carries the weight of up to three trucks), but often it's more about groups of wagons. Sometimes two, sometimes even fifteen. ZSSK CARGO is still here for these customers as the only network-wide freight rail carrier.
The volume of wagonload shipments, despite Slovakia's commitment to transport 30% of goods by rail by 2030, is gradually decreasing. In the last few years alone, the number has dropped by one and a half million tonnes - that's almost 63,000 fully loaded trucks added to Slovak roads each year. If we were to lose all five million tons, another 200,000 more truck trips would impact Slovakian roads. This is one of the reasons why ZSSK CARGO is fighting to preserve wagonload shipments.
Shipments like at the post office - only bigger
You don't order a whole truckload home when you need to send a package. You go to the post office. In the same way, we send regional freight trains from ZSSK CARGO to pick up wagonloads. They run on local lines and main corridors and serve the catchment areas in a star pattern to the so-called train forming stations. We could compare them to post offices in smaller towns. From them, larger deliveries are heading to larger cities and distribution centres. In the same way, trains made up of individual wagon consignments go from the train forming stations to the marshalling yards. After the wagons are "sorted" there, the mixed trains head back to the larger stations with a new mix of wagons. Subsequently, the local trains depart to the peripheral parts of Slovakia and its deep valleys. It's the same as when you order something from an online store, and your package goes through a bulk warehouse to a regional warehouse, only for the courier to ring your doorbell.
How wagonloads are sorted
At the heart of this entire complex operation are marshalling yards. There are seven of these "sorting centres for freight wagons" in Slovakia: Bratislava East, Štúrovo, Žilina-Teplička, Zvolen, Košice and Čierna nad Tisou (there are two yards – one for normal gauge and one for broad gauge). What does their operation look like?
Marshalling yards comprise of three basic parts: an arrival yard, classification tracks and a departure yard. The departure yard is often divided into the directions where the trains will go from it, for example, in Bratislava to the north and south. Each direction has a group of several tracks. In Žilina, for example, there are 6 tracks in the arrival yard, 18 classification tracks and 5 tracks in the departure yard.
After a local or mixed freight train arrives from a train forming or border station, its first stop is one of the arrival yard tracks. There, the locomotive is disconnected, and one of the shunting locomotives is positioned at the rear end of the train. The locomotive then "pushes" the set of wagons on a so-called hump. It is a small artificial hill, at the top of which the shunters disconnect a wagon or a group of wagons, which then descend from it by gravity. From the control tower, switches are positioned for each wagon or group of wagons so that a new train is gradually formed on each track of the classification yard - with wagons heading to the same station or direction. According to the weight of specific wagons, spring-hydraulic brakes installed on the classification tracks are used to brake them. When enough wagons are collected in one direction for the entire train, another shunting locomotive clears the track and pulls the set to the departure yard. There, the wagons are permanently connected for a longer journey, the brakes are tested, and the locomotive is placed at the front of the train again.
The busier, the more efficient
This entire process demands people, technology, space, and time. But the busier the wagonload system is, it becomes more efficient and cheaper. Every customer who transfers their raw materials for production or finished products from production to the railway is important to ZSSK CARGO. It increases the efficiency and utilisation of a system that has been working for many decades. Although parameters such as safety and ecology have taken a backseat to the price, in which the railway is losing in an unfair battle with trucks, at ZSSK CARGO, we continue to fight for every wagon. Each wagon is essential for Slovakia to be on the common path to success in achieving thirty percent of goods transported annually by rail within seven years.
