IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/trapol/v131y2023icp13-21.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Damage or no damage from traffic: Re-examining marginal cost pricing for rail signalling maintenance

Author

Listed:
  • Odolinski, Kristofer
  • Smith, Andrew
  • Wheat, Phill
  • Nilsson, Jan-Eric
  • Dheilly, Clement

Abstract

This paper re-examines the implementation of the short run marginal cost (SRMC) pricing principle with respect to rail infrastructure usage and empirically tests if there are rail infrastructure maintenance costs triggered by traffic but not caused by asset damage from traffic. This is important because current EU legislation stipulates that only costs related to infrastructure wear and tear from traffic are eligible for the direct cost-based element of track access charges. An econometric approach is applied to French panel data on signalling maintenance costs. The results show that the SRMC for infrastructure provision of these assets is not only related to asset damage costs caused by traffic, but can also be due to economic factors linked to increased line capacity utilisation: 1) higher cost per maintenance activity, and/or 2) increased preventative maintenance to curb delays. Our work offers an explanation as to why econometric and engineering approaches give different views of rail infrastructure cost variability and suggests that EU legislation on track access pricing may need to be revised.

Suggested Citation

  • Odolinski, Kristofer & Smith, Andrew & Wheat, Phill & Nilsson, Jan-Eric & Dheilly, Clement, 2023. "Damage or no damage from traffic: Re-examining marginal cost pricing for rail signalling maintenance," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 13-21.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:trapol:v:131:y:2023:i:c:p:13-21
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2022.11.013
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967070X22003250
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tranpol.2022.11.013?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Clark, Tom S. & Linzer, Drew A., 2015. "Should I Use Fixed or Random Effects?," Political Science Research and Methods, Cambridge University Press, vol. 3(02), pages 399-408, May.
    2. Odolinski, Kristofer, 2018. "Marginalkostnader för järnvägsunderhåll: trafikens påverkan på olika anläggningar," Working papers in Transport Economics 2018:24, CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI).
    3. Smith, Andrew S.J., 2012. "The application of stochastic frontier panel models in economic regulation: Experience from the European rail sector," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 503-515.
    4. Taylor, William E., 1980. "Small sample considerations in estimation from panel data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 203-223, June.
    5. Johansson, Per & Nilsson, Jan-Eric, 2004. "An economic analysis of track maintenance costs," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 277-286, July.
    6. Clark, Tom S. & Linzer, Drew A., 2015. "Should I Use Fixed or Random Effects?," Political Science Research and Methods, Cambridge University Press, vol. 3(2), pages 399-408, May.
    7. Wooldridge, Jeffrey M., 2019. "Correlated random effects models with unbalanced panels," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 211(1), pages 137-150.
    8. Odolinski, Kristofer & Nilsson, Jan-Eric & Yarmukhamedov, Sherzod & Haraldsson, Mattias, 2020. "The marginal cost of track renewals in the Swedish railway network: Using data to compare methods," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 22(C).
    9. Christensen, Laurits R & Jorgenson, Dale W & Lau, Lawrence J, 1973. "Transcendental Logarithmic Production Frontiers," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 55(1), pages 28-45, February.
    10. Gerhard Munduch & Alexander Pfister & Leopold Sögner & Alfred Stiassny, 2002. "Estimating Marginal Costs for the Austrian Railway System," Department of Economics Working Papers wuwp078, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Department of Economics.
    11. Munduch, Gerhard & Pfister, Alexander & Sögner, Leopold & Stiassny, Alfred, 2002. "Estimating marginal costs for the Austrian railway system," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 78, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    12. Timothy J. Coelli & D.S. Prasada Rao & Christopher J. O’Donnell & George E. Battese, 2005. "An Introduction to Efficiency and Productivity Analysis," Springer Books, Springer, edition 0, number 978-0-387-25895-9, November.
    13. Riju Joshi & Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2019. "Correlated Random Effects Models with Endogenous Explanatory Variables and Unbalanced Panels," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 134, pages 243-268.
    14. Christensen, Laurits R & Greene, William H, 1976. "Economies of Scale in U.S. Electric Power Generation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 84(4), pages 655-676, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Smith, Andrew S.J. & Odolinski, Kristofer & Hossein Nia, Saeed & Jönsson, Per-Anders & Stichel, Sebastian & Iwnicki, Simon & Wheat, Phillip, 2016. "Estimating the marginal cost of different vehicle types on rail infrastructure," Working papers in Transport Economics 2016:26, CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI).
    2. Maximilian Koppenberg & Stefan Hirsch, 2022. "Output market power and firm characteristics in dairy processing: Evidence from three EU countries," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(2), pages 490-517, June.
    3. Odolinski, Kristofer & Nilsson, Jan-Eric, 2017. "Estimating the marginal maintenance cost of rail infrastructure usage in Sweden; does more data make a difference?," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 10(C), pages 8-17.
    4. Koppenberg, Maximilian & Hirsch, Stefan, 2020. "Comparing methods for markup estimation with an application to EU food retailing," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304272, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    5. Odolinski, Kristofer & Nilsson, Jan-Eric, 2016. "Estimating the marginal maintenance cost of rail infrastructure usage in Sweden; does more data make a difference?," Working papers in Transport Economics 2016:27, CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI), revised 13 May 2017.
    6. Odolinski, Kristofer & Nilsson, Jan-Eric & Yarmukhamedov, Sherzod & Haraldsson, Mattias, 2020. "The marginal cost of track renewals in the Swedish railway network: Using data to compare methods," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 22(C).
    7. Franklin, Francis & Nemtanu, Florin & Teixeira, Paulo F., 2013. "Rail infrastructure, ITS and access charges," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 31-42.
    8. Andrew Smith & Phill Wheat, 2012. "Estimation of cost inefficiency in panel data models with firm specific and sub-company specific effects," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 37(1), pages 27-40, February.
    9. Müller, Gernot, 2006. "Zur Ökonomie von Trassenpreissystemen," WIK Discussion Papers 279, WIK Wissenschaftliches Institut für Infrastruktur und Kommunikationsdienste GmbH.
    10. Odolinski, Kristofer & Boysen, Hans E., 2018. "Railway line capacity utilisation and its impact on maintenance costs," Working papers in Transport Economics 2018:10, CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI), revised 30 Oct 2018.
    11. Odolinski, Kristofer & Wheat, Phill, 2018. "Dynamics in rail infrastructure provision: Maintenance and renewal costs in Sweden," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 14(C), pages 21-30.
    12. Engelbert Stockhammer & Paul Ramskogler, 2009. "Post-Keynesian economics How to move forward," European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 6(2), pages 227-246.
    13. Arnd Kölling & Claus Schnabel, 2022. "Owners, external managers and industrial relations in German establishments," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 60(2), pages 424-443, June.
    14. Elizabeth Fussell & Sara R. Curran & Matthew D. Dunbar & Michael A. Babb & Luanne Thompson & Jacqueline Meijer-Irons, 2017. "Weather-Related Hazards and Population Change," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 669(1), pages 146-167, January.
    15. Victor Chernozhukov & Whitney K. Newey & Victor Quintas-Martinez & Vasilis Syrgkanis, 2021. "Automatic Debiased Machine Learning via Riesz Regression," Papers 2104.14737, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2024.
    16. Dilmaghani, Maryam, 2021. "The gender gap in competitive chess across countries: Commanding queens in command economies," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 425-441.
    17. Fattouh, Bassam & Pisicoli, Beniamino & Scaramozzino, Pasquale, 2024. "Debt and financial fragility: Italian non-financial companies after the pandemic," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    18. Silvia Rocha-Akis, 2006. "Labour tax policies and strategic offshoring under unionised oligopoly," Department of Economics Working Papers wuwp099, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Department of Economics.
    19. Harald Badinger & Ingrid Kubin, 2007. "Vom kurzfristigen zum mittelfristigen Gleichgewicht in einer offenen Volkswirtschaft unter fixen und flexiblen Wechselkursen," Department of Economics Working Papers wuwp101, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Department of Economics.
    20. Yarmukhamedov, Sherzod & Smith, Andrew S.J. & Thiebaud, Jean-Christophe, 2020. "Competitive tendering, ownership and cost efficiency in road maintenance services in Sweden: A panel data analysis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 194-204.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:trapol:v:131:y:2023:i:c:p:13-21. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/30473/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.