== Abstract ==

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The European objective of a modal shift of freight transports to railways will require extensive upgrading of<br> existing railway lines. This is due to the fact that very few dedicated freight railways are currently being built and<br> existing lines were built for traffic demands at the time of construction. A transition to increased and enhanced<br> railway freight operations can therefore be costly and complicated. To minimize negative effects, a guideline for<br> upgrading was developed within the Capacity4Rail project. The current paper presents the major findings from<br> this guideline. In particular, it outlines different upgrading possibilities and their implications, and details<br> structured approaches to upgrading analyses. Setting out from the Capacity4Rail handbook, the current paper<br> discusses possibilities for upgrading of substructures, bridges, tunnels, and the track structure. In these areas, an<br> overview of challenges and possibilities is presented together with examples of experience from operational<br> upgrading. The paper concludes that freight line upgrading using a more streamlined approach, as outlined in the<br> guideline, is a necessity if EU objectives on modal shifts in transportation are to be met. Further, it demonstrates<br> why a political drive is necessary to increase efforts to upgrade freight lines.

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== Original document ==

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The different versions of the original document can be found in:

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* [https://research.chalmers.se/en/publication/506523 https://research.chalmers.se/en/publication/506523]

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* [https://zenodo.org/record/1491480 https://zenodo.org/record/1491480] under the license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode

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* [http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1491480 http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1491480],

: [https://zenodo.org/record/1491480 https://zenodo.org/record/1491480] under the license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode

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* [https://zenodo.org/record/1491480 https://zenodo.org/record/1491480],

: [http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1491479 http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1491479] under the license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode

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DOIS: 10.5281/zenodo.1491479 10.5281/zenodo.1491480

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