Transportation is the most important aspect to know if you want to know the railway system very closely. 90% of railway employee and rail users have to gain a minimum knowledge about transportation, in whichever department they have been. Especially those who are from Operating and Commercial background, must have a core knowledge of it. Transportation have two parts i.e. 1. General Transportation, which are taught in all ZRTI for initial students and 2. Advance Transportation, an advance course for all traffic probationary taught in IRITM, Lucknow. In this topic, will going to draw an outline about advance transportation and discuss why all the students who are pursuing Rail Transport Management course, should gather knowledge about it. Transport Management is about a study of seeking vast knowledge about Railway's operational activities, commercial activities as well as traffic accountable activities. Advance Transportation covers the advance aspects of railway operation and analysis of day to day operating performance by applying numerous number of formulae and statistics. 

Here are some below mentioned consideration of Advance Transportation and its outcome for learner:- 

Freight train operations

It is said that 65% of railway revenue are generated by selling goods service. Knowledge of freight train operations considered as a primary gateway to advance studies. It includes some essential points and indicates that can help the seekers to get a clear concept about freight business:-

Knowledge of Transportation products offered by Railways to their customer

Knowledge of the variety of commodities to be moved, with different characteristics & type of wagons required

Knowledge of commodity rates enlisted by Indian Railway Conference Association(I.R.C.A) 

Knowledge of Preferential Traffic Schedule and Rationalization Scheme published by Rail board in every year from 1st April under Railway Act. 1989

Knowledge of The activities of 8 core industries included Coal, Crude oil, Natural Gas, Petroleum refinery products, Fertilizer, Cement, Steel and Electricity generation and their relation with Indian Railways 

Knowledge of Port Railway Management. Indian Railways gave Rail Transport Clearance(RTC) to all ports that they may build Private Port Terminal(PPT) with some policies generated by Rail board to ease the dock railway operation

Knowledge of Container Rail operations, Container Rail Operators and their various policies, Container Class Rate(CCR) in which containers are charged to transport

Knowledge of Various Running and Non Running Freight charges including Busy Season Charges, Hauling Charges, Wharfage, Demurrage, Punitive Charges, Congestion Charges etc. 

Knowledge of various Freight Incentive Schemes published by Rail board to boost the freight marketing

Knowledge of pattern and fluctuations in demand for rakes/wagons due to changes in the level of production, Seasonal variation of demand, pattern of Rake Allocation System in Indian Railways

The Control Organization - The Nerve Centre of Railway system:

As an organization develops and becomes more complex, the need for coordination between its various units becomes more urgent. The Control organization is one of the principal means by which this essential coordination is obtained in railway operation. Position of the Control officer in the railway organization can be compared with that of the brain in human body. Just like the brain, it guides all operations on the railway. The very skill of Coordination, Communication and Leadership can be seek out from this centralized organization. 

Coaching train Operations 

To operate coaching train, may not bring huge revenue to railway like goods train but we have to understood that operation of coaching train is a primary and fundamental duty of railway to society. Lots of advance consideration, theories, methods are included in this operation:-

Various type of Coaching services served by Indian Railways to nation i.e. Suburban Service, Passenger Service, Mail/Express Service, Premium Service, Parcel Service, Railway Mail Service.

Types and Characteristics of various Passenger Coaching Vehicles(PCV) and various Other Coaching Vehicle(OCV).

Works and Activities of Passenger Profile Management(PPM). 

Robust approaches of creating locomotive link for coaching train to ensure that no link would not be impacted due to failure of other link in the whole loco cycle. 

Mathematical way of creating rake link in such manner that stabling time of any rake should be minimized and also to run more trains using less number rakes.

Different approach of 'Punctuality' study including punctuality calculation formula, close study about factors which are affecting punctuality of passenger train. 

Approach of creating Railway timetable and augmenting capacity utilization 

It deals with some principles of timetabling and defines some notions of “good” quality of a timetable with respect to various stakeholders involved in a railway network (including passengers as end-users, freight customers and the network operator). This is followed by an elaboration on various parameters and how they affect the quality of a timetable. 

Principles of rail-traffic timetabling. 

Current timetable observations on some section.

Capacity utilization of sections handling mixed traffic.

Analysis of how various parameters affect congestion. 

Junction congestion analysis.

Recommendations for improvement in capacity.

Distribution of slacks and allowances are made.

Interchange management

Ministry of Railway have 18 open railway zone, inter-connected by each other and each of them is a business module. Each railway owned a sufficient number of Rolling stock which are considered to be the most worthy assets as a transporter. If we consider the whole railway network as a business, then all the zones are considered to be investor. They used to invest their stock to play among the network. Their stocks juggled among the 18 zones by different interchange or Junction points. Any of the railway can use other's stocks for operational purpose. A fix amount of 'Hire Charges' are levied on debtor railways will be divided by among creditor railways in the proportion of their credits. Here the amount of credit depends on two figure, 1. Figure of Interchange Balance of a railway and 2. Figure of Wagon Balance of a railway. Proper and vivid way of interchange management helps to maintain a well balanced inter-railway financial adjustments. Beside wagon interchange, Coach interchange and loco interchange are also hire charged as per different rates. 

Modernization and latest developments in Railway transportation

Modernization means to modernize Railway to meet the challenges of economic growth, cater to the aspirations of common man, the needs of changing technology while ensuring at the same time socio economic requirements of the country. It includes Modernisation track, Strengthening bridges, Eliminating all Level crossings, Automatic signaling on busy routes, GSM based mobile train control system, Introduction of new generation motive power, Introduction high speed LHB coaches, Introduction of high haul freight wagon, Modernisation of major stations, Development of multi modal logistic parks, To set up real time information system, Attracting private investment through PP models for freight terminals, high speed railway lines, leasing wagons, coach and loco manufacturing renewable energy generation etc, Dedicated freight corridors, High speed trains, Increment of Avg. Speed of Goods train, Offering Graduate programme in Railway Technology about Advance Transportation.

Various operating statistics and ratios 

Advance Transportation are enriched with various operating statistics and ratios which are helps railways to express their service performance through mathematical calculation. TRAFFIC STATISTICS - included with Wagon loading, Wagon mobility Wagon Turn Round days, Wagon usage, Productive and Unproductive Service statistics, Wagon detaintion, Marshaling yard statistics, Terminal statistics. POWER STATISTICS - included with Engine usage, Engine demand, Engine utilisation, Fuel and Energy consumption, Engine failure statistics. ROLLING STOCK STATISTICS - included with Rolling stock holding and availability and Repair & Maintenance statistics. 

Significance of Information Technology in Railway transportation system

Think about this, within Indian Railways there are at least trains are running on daily basis, that means in each hour signals are being followed, points are being crossed over. Now imagine how stressful that operation would have been if it was ran by human. The system has to be up and running 24x7, with almost 0 tolerance and 0 lost time. We would have to have thousands if not million exceptionally skillful people to do this things day in and day out. And that's where the magic of Information Technology comes to play. The extensive use of IT systems increases the operability multiple fold, brings a transparent data of daily traffic activities and exposed as daily basis MIS report to stakeholders. In account of transportation lots of IT system are there:-

Freight Operation Information System(FOIS):- For handling Operational and Commercial aspect of Goods traffic of Indian Railways

Coaching Operation Information System(COIS):- Operational aspect of Coaching traffic 

Punctuality Analysis and Monitoring Module(PAM):- Data collection of punctuality loss and analysis them

Integrated Passenger Information System(IPIS):- A Integrated module of public addressing with proper running status of passenger trains

Terminal Pipeline Management System(TPMS):- IT based prediction of terminal congestion of a particular freight terminal Station in accordance with pipeline flow, rake handling capacity over there.

Time Table Module:- App based Time Table making modules of Indian Railways.

Planning and Infrastructure (Traffic) 

Whenever railway has intend to introduce a new traffic at their network, the consideration will be that, if there is a proper infrastructure to operate this train. The main objective of this, is to define the processes of managing the capacity of railway infrastructure with the aim of achieving high-quality operative management of traffic due to the efficiency of transport flow on the infrastructure. There are two ways of achieving high-quality, hassle-free traffic management, one is (i) By incurring expenditure and another is (ii) Without incurring expenditure. First one includes some important consideration like, increasing loading/unloading potential of the terminals to least the terminal detention, building long loop on long and heavy haul train operated sections, provision of shunting neck to all yard to ease the yard shunting without blocking mainline, provision of direct crossover in big junction station, auto signaling on congested section, provision of Bulb line to avoid train reversal, sufficient development in railway goods shed siding for rail users etc. Now, the planning without incurring expenditure be like efficient planning to augment section capacity, giving priority as per schedule, right powering of trains, maximizing long haul train, sufficient crew balancing at junction point with adjacent division, proper planning by board controllers etc.