LIIIFT (Long Innovative, Intermodal and Interoperable Freight Trains)

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LIIIFT builds upon the conclusions of IIC studies to tackle the traffic growth foreseen along the Paris-Amsterdam corridor – a high increase in road traffic, low rail transport capacity and, subsequently, increased environmental externalities. The project, led by the French railway body SNCF (Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français), groups together 9 partners from Belgium, France and the Netherlands, seeks to promote improved rail freight services by investigating how to make goods transport by trains more competitive - notably, by examining the feasibility of running longer trains (up to 1000m) with the requisite technically specifications to allow them to operate on a northsouth route. The 4½ year project is defined around 7 tasks, the principal objectives being to increase the capacity of combined freight trains on the targeted route, develop interoperability by harmonising operational rules and promote transnational cooperation between the partners from different ‘rail cultures’. Bringing together an extremely promising partnership of rail operators, port bodies and freight handlers, LIIIFT may ultimately make a significant contribution to a rail-freight traffic growth and modal switch. The north-south Amsterdam-Paris corridor appears to be an excellent area in which to investigate - and potentially pilot - the operation of longer freight trains, in the first instance.

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