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[quote user="owlsroost"][quote]Can I assume that passenger operations occur mostly during daylight hours, e.g. no overnight passenger operations?  If so, then the extra capacity needed to be able to bid out slots for cross border freights would be available at night.  The key here is if intercontinental freights in and out of the Netherlands can achieve their objectives by utilizing Dutch tracks at night and the German, et al, tracks during daylight hours.  Otherwise, if the situation is the same thoughout Europe regarding passenger train saturation during daylight hours, freights would be parked during daylight hours until the tracks cleared after twilight.[/quote] Quite a lot of rail and road freight does move at night in Europe because of daytime congestion/capacity problems on both rail and road systems. Unfortunately because of the intensity of train services during the day (and we're talking about passenger services from 5am - midnight or beyond), track inspection and maintenance has to be done mostly at night, so some routes aren't neccesarily open for 24hrs every day. [quote]As I mentioned before, daylight operations of freights over passenger dominated tracks is tricky, but can be done if the freights can be squeezed in as second sections of passenger trains between terminals.  Waiting time in sidings for opposing traffic would increase slightly, but not to any dramatic effect.[/quote] FM, you're still thinking with a US 'out in the sticks' view of how trains run.[/quote] Well, I gis I'll just have to shut down the still for a spell, hitch up the horse 'n buggy, an' go have a looksee fer meself. [quote] Most European mainlines are double track (or quadruple if really busy) with full block signalling, using short block lengths to maximise capacity (full braking distance may be spread over more than one block). Whereas a busy single-track line in the US might have 20 trains per DAY (counting both directions).....[/quote] Actually more like 80 to 100, but I digress [quote]....., a busy double-track line here could easily have 20 trains per HOUR or more for a large part of the day.[/quote] So you're saying even a second section slot is already taken? [quote] Also the speed differential between fast passenger and freight trains e.g 125mph<->75mph or 100mph<->60mph means you could probably run two passenger trains in the track space/time used by a freight train (thus making the daytime freight slots even more expensive compared to passenger slots if you have a 'level playing field').[/quote] This gets into yet another critique of the rail vs all other modes debate, whether in NA or the Old Country.  On highways, all traffic moves at the same relative speed for the most part sans any significant grades, doens't matter if it's cars, buses, LTL, grain trucks, et al.  On waterways, most barges and riverboats run at the same nautical speed.  Air freight moves at the same speed as passenger jets. Why can't all rail consists move at the same speed?  More to the point, why not make all rail traffic move at the same speed, to avoid unidirectional congestion?  I know part of it is to optimize fuel economy on tonnage moves, but even with lower fuel economy by having to increase the hp to t ratio, it's still preferable to not moving the tonnage by rail at all, e.g. back on the mode of last resort aka trucks nee lorries. BTW - Is  there much in the way of directional running on European rails, or is most of it bi-directional?
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