SLOT ALLOCATION AT RAILWAYS AND AIRPORTS: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

Slot allocation is applied to various infrastructure networks, including railways and airports. Slot allocation helps to avoid congestion by balancing traffic supply with traffic demand in a planning process. Railned is the slot allocation authority for the Dutch railways and the Airport Coordination Netherlands Foundation (SACN) is responsible for airport slot coordination in the Netherlands. The slot allocation systems of both sectors are based on a combination of consensus building and priority rules. One major difference is that the main criteria applied to airports are historical rights ('grandfather rights'), while railways only guarantee minimum frequencies per user class. This paper proposes to separate the slot allocation process into two different decisions: firstly decide what slot requests can be accommodated, and then decide on the exact timetable. In this case, different priorities can be applied to both decision types. The paper also proposes to grant multi-year slot entitlements to transport companies instead of full historical rights. (A) For the covering abstract of the conference see ITRD E206647.