The Problems of the Presence of Passenger and Freight Trains on the Same Track

Many features of the freight wagons/trains differ substantially from those of the passenger coaches/trains. As a result, sharing the same track affects directly or indirectly the design, construction, operation and maintenance of a railway system. In this context, this paper evaluates qualitatively and quantitatively the effect of some of the above features on the components and elements of the railway system and provides cost elements for the construction of a railway infrastructure considering different scenarios of operation. The main findings of this paper have shown that: for freight trains the track maintenance cost is much greater than that for passenger trains, the alignment is determined by the design speed defined for passenger trains, the construction cost of infrastructure for a typical mixed traffic corridor is generally higher than that of a passenger dedicated corridor.