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The development of intermodal container transport is hampered in part by the cost associated with the shunting of trains in marshalling yards, inland and port railway terminals. Many new technologies have been developed in the past decade, but have still not been applied because of high capital investment costs, lack of sufficient market demand and uncertain rates of return. The key for increasing the competitiveness of intermodal container transport by rail is the operation of heavy haul container trains between port and inland railway terminals more frequently with fast, flexible and automatic transhipment, shunting and coupling of container wagons. The operation of self-driven railcars equipped with automatic centre coupling on terminal tracks, which can also be train-hauled on conventional hinterland railway lines, would enable a reduction of shunting and transhipment time and costs in intermodal container terminals by more than 30%.

This special issue is based on a selection of the four best papers from the Third International Seminar on Railway Operations Modelling and Analysis held in Zurich from 11 to 13 February 2009. The papers have been selected and reviewed by Board and other senior members of the International Association of Railway Operations Research (IAROR) and subsequently revised by their authors. The authors and their papers come from universities in Sweden, The Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland and Portugal. They represent valuable contributions to the current state of scientific and professional knowledge in the area of railway operations that can stimulate the broader application and further development of advanced analytical, combinatorial and simulation models.