Improving energy efficiency for freight trains during operation: The use of simulation

This paper focuses on the optimization of freight trains operation for energy saving purposes, highlighting the future challenges and the current possibilities. A simulation-based approach for the generation of energy saving speed profiles, implemented in Matlab, is here adopted with real data from onboard monitoring system. Results have highlighted two interesting aspects: onboard monitoring data give useful information during the calibration of the simulation model, by referring to real data it is possible to have a clear reference on the potential energy saving.