Chapter 10

Forecasting Demand for a Proposed New Rail Freight Service

One of the characteristics of Cubetown is that it presently serves as the regions rail hub.
Freight arrives from all areas and is transferred at Cubetown.
The operators of the rail service have decided to consider the market for a new, direct
north south rail freight service. We will help them study that with the Cube Cargo model.
Right click on Base in the Scenario sub-area.

Click on Add Child

In the area: type newrail
Click OK on the information dialog
On the rail line input, select cargofuturerail.lin

The new rail file is the same as used in the base year except a new rail service is offered
from the southern to the northern portions of the study area without stopping in
Cubetown.

Click on Save
Click on Run

The model is applied with the new rail service. While Cube Cargo gives a wide variety of
statistics and results including detailed matrices of commodity and truck flows, a
principal result from the current test is the evaluation of the reduction in truck flows and
the increase in rail tons.
In the Data section (expand the outputs), two files are output giving the difference
between the base case and the currently run scenario. Truck Change gives a matrix with

the reduction in annual truck flows. Commodity change gives the change in the tons of
commodities transported by mode per year.

Double click on truck change. The matrix opens

ouble click on commodity change. The matrices open. When done reviewing,
close the two matrices.

The Cube Cargo model evaluates level of service changes but also changes in costs. In
the following cash study, rail costs are raised 10%. Right click on Base in the Scenario
sub-area.

Click on Add Child

In the area: type rail_increase
Click OK on the information dialog
The rail and river input services should be the same as the base scenario
Click the button to increase rail costs by 10%.

Click on Save
Click on Run

The model is applied with the existing rail and river services. The only change over the
base situation is that rail costs are increased by 10%. In the Data section (expand the
Outputs), two files are output giving the difference between the base case the and
currently run scenario. Truck Change gives a matrix with the change in annual truck
flows. Commodity change gives the change in the tons of commodities transported by
mode per year.

Double click on truck change. The matrix opens

Double click on commodity change. The matrices open.