A TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) model to simulate the competitiveness of decarbonized rail freight alternatives[Un modèle TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) pour simuler la compétitivité des alternatives décarbonées de fret ferroviaire]

Although rail is already one of the greenest modes of transportation, it still emits greenhouse gas emissions when operating on diesel (i.e., 197 million tons of GHG emissions every year). In France, 43% of the rail network is still non-electrified and over 50% of freight trains are pulled by diesel locomotives since they originate on non-electrified industrial sidings and, in some cases, run on non-electrified secondary mainlines. Due to technical, economic and safety reasons, the first and last miles are mainly non-electrified which means that diesel locomotives usually continue their journey on electrified mainlines, thus consuming diesel and generating unnecessary air pollution and carbon dioxide emissions. As a result, today, 80% of diesel freight train- kilometers are done under catenaries (Simian et al., 2018). For a few years now, influenced by the trend towards decarbonization, rail has been undergoing a major conversion. A shift resulting in the emergence of green/eco- friendly solutions. Given the diversity of rail use cases (both for passengers and freight) resulting in a wide range of decarbonized solutions, it is becoming more and more complicated for a decision-maker to choose the most suitable solution according to his needs. This aim of this research is to perform an in-depth analysis of the decarbonized alternatives for a given rail freight mission, to compare them in terms of technical feasibility, environmental balance, and economic efficiency and to support shippers/operators in their decision-making process.