PERCEIVED BENEFITS OF IMPROVED INFORMATION EXCHANGE - A CASE STUDY ON RAIL AND INTERMODAL TRANSPORTS

The interest in achieving more effective railway freight transports in Europe and increasing the railway's market share, has grown in the past few years. The use of railway is, however, often rather complex in many aspects and needs to become more flexible and reliable if it will be able to compete with other modes of transport. A study was carried out to investigate if and how improved information exchange between the Swedish National Rail Administration, Banverket, and its customers can facilitate the use of Swedish railway freight transports. The primary aim was to identify the customers' needs for improved information exchange as well as to understand how they would benefit from it. The results showed that the accessibility to information has a significant impact on the whole planning process and that there already exists substantial information that will benefit the customers if synthesised and made available.