What is Wagon Pooling?
Each zonal railway of IR has a fleet of freight wagons that it owns. Of necessity, most freight trains traverse through territory of more than one zonal railway, and wagons of one railwy may end up outside their home zone after a run. Wagon Pooling refers to the practice of allowing other zonal railways to use the wagons for their own freight trains. In effect, the wagons from all zonal railways are ‘pooled’ together and scheduled for goods trains indiscriminately, without a zone giving preference to wagons it owns. Pooling generally increases wagon utilization, since it avoids transshipment from one zone’s wagons to another zone’s wagons at zonal boundaries, and also avoids having wagons return empty to their home railway. It also minimizes shunting as a result and improves yard and siding utilization. Generally speaking, most wagons used for long-distance freight are pooled wagons and participate in the pooling. See below for non-pooled and local traffic wagons which do not participa
