In spite of extraordinary support programs initiated by the European Union and other national authorities, the percentage of overall freight traffic moved by train is in steady decline. This development is driven by the fact that macro-economic benefits of rail traffic, such as relief of...

Transshipment yards, where gantry cranes allow for an ecient transshipment of containersbetween different freight trains, are important entities in modern railway systems andfacilitate the general shift from point-to-point transport to hub-and-spoke railway systems.Modern rail-rail transshipment...