Trieste Port Authority needed to modify the layout of its rail connection to the Italian network in order to improve capacity and allow the circulation of 750m long trains. In this project, supported by TEN-T funds, we developed the main idea and mainly the assessment procedure.
It was a two steps procedure: the cost benefit analysis to verify the convenience of the proposed improvements and a Multi criteria analysis (using AHP methodology) to compare and rank the possible alternatives. The design of the selected solution is now going on.
This international institution needed a general framework to assess projects to be formally labelled.
In this context, together with CETMO, we proposed a multi-criteria methodology which was used both for hard (infrastructure development) and soft (IT or training initiatives) project in the field of transportation.
In the context of the European project AlpInnoCT (Alpine Innovation for Combined Transport), the evaluation of alternative scenarios of intervention to improve railway freight transport has been approached following the principles of the AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) method in its multi-stakeholder form.
The pilot action proposed by the Port Network Authority of the Eastern Adriatic Sea consisted in the implementation of an ICT system to trace train flows of a specific railway company operating in the Port of Trieste, with the aim of better managing railway freight transfers and, thus, enhancing their competitiveness.
As such, the pilot action involved not only a variety of aspects (from organizational to technological and sustainability features), but also several stakeholders (both at operational and regulatory level).
The adopted evaluation technique permitted to assist decision makers through a comprehensive assessment framework considering explicitly all those different criteria and perspectives.
In line with the aim of estimating the optimal port railway capacity, simulation and optimization activities performed within the European project REIF (Regional infrastructure for railway freight transport – revitalized) were sustained by an evaluation procedure addressing the prioritization of some key port railway operational features.
Such appraisal was carried out adopting a multi-criteria multi-stakeholder approach based on the application of the AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) method.
A few port actors were actively involved in the decision-making process expressing judgements on the influence of stakeholders in accomplishing the main goal of the examined problem and on the relevance of the selected criteria.
Thanks to the inclusiveness of the assessment framework and the participatory role of engaged actors, the evaluation permitted to obtain shared results concerning the priorities of the analysed port features.
Using well known Cost Benefit Methodology, we compared different solution for the realization of a new main road connection across the mountains in the north of Italy.
Input data came from a specific transportation study. The selected solution is now being realized.
Cost-Benefit or Multicriteria analyses have been used in a number of other projects.
Among those, the most relevant are:
