BasGoed: the Dutch national freight model

Developed by: Omnitrans International

Client:  DVS department of the Dutch Ministry for Infrastructure and the Environment

Country: The Netherlands
Agent: -
Project year: 2010

BasGoed: the Dutch national freight model

Commissioned by the DVS department of the Dutch Ministry for Infrastructure and the Environment, Omnitrans International is currently building the new strategic freight model for the Netherlands.

In this project freight is modeled for road, rail and water and produces forecasts by using a series of growth factor models. First growth based on economic effects is calculated, the based on distribution effects and in the last step based on modal-split effects.

The resulting matrices are used as input for the National Model, LMS for roads, RoutGoed (National Rail Model) and BIVAS (National waterway model).

The project is seen as a new approach to model development within DVS. The aim is to improve transparency and robustness of the modeling. This is achieved by making the model in essence simpler but also by using existing software when possible. Omnitrans International has designed the system by using small, controllable components. Each component is easily tested, validated and transparent. Using Ruby the components are assembled in a user friendly and again transparent model.

OmniTRANS turned out to be the ideal platform to build BasGoed. With its open-source scripting language, Ruby, the model can be created quickly and external programs are easily embedded. With its powerful analysis capabilities the results are easily analyzed and anomalies in the data are quickly found. At the same time, by its open-source nature, no dependency with Omnitrans International occurs. The result can be delivered as a stand-alone application (in Ruby).