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Rail access charges and the competitiveness of high speed trains

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  • Sánchez-Borràs, Marta
  • Nash, Chris
  • Abrantes, Pedro
  • López-Pita, Andrés

Abstract

This paper examines rail access charges for high speed trains on new high speed lines in Europe and the impact these have on the market position of high speed rail. It examines the latest evidence on the marginal infrastructure and external costs of high speed rail, finding that the best evidence is that these are both not more than 2Â [euro]/train-km. However, current legislation states that environmental costs should not be charged for unless they are charged for on competing modes. Mark ups based on Ramsey pricing principles might reasonably raise prices by 100-200%, given that infrastructure charges are only a part of the final price of rail. The paper then examines the actual prices charged in the main European countries operating high speed trains and the impact these are likely to have on traffic levels and mode split. It is found that mark ups often exceed even the optimal Ramsey levels, with a significant impact on rail volumes and market share. It is concluded that, whilst it is not surprising that governments wish to recover some of the construction costs of new high speed rail lines from users, they should consider carefully whether the level of charges is actually significantly reducing traffic on and benefits from these lines.

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  • Sánchez-Borràs, Marta & Nash, Chris & Abrantes, Pedro & López-Pita, Andrés, 2010. "Rail access charges and the competitiveness of high speed trains," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 102-109, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:trapol:v:17:y:2010:i:2:p:102-109
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Stephen Gibson & Grahame Cooper & Brian Ball, 2002. "Developments in Transport Policy: The Evolution of Capacity Charges on the UK Rail Network," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 36(2), pages 341-354, May.
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    Cited by:

    1. Bigerna, Simona & Bollino, Carlo Andrea, 2016. "Ramsey prices in the Italian electricity market," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 603-612.
    2. de Rus, Ginés & Socorro, M. Pilar, 2019. "Pricing and investment in alternative transport infrastructures," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 96-107.
    3. Wang, Yixiao & Pels, Eric & Teunter, Ruud H. & Sun, Luoyi & Wu, Jianhong, 2023. "Railway liberalization, airport congestion toll, and infrastructure pricing: Modelling and numerical analysis for European and Chinese markets," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    4. Juan J. Montero, 2014. "Rail Transport: A Balance Sheet," EUI-RSCAS Working Papers p0413, European University Institute (EUI), Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies (RSCAS).
    5. Ljungberg, Anders, 2013. "Impacts of increased rail infrastructure charges in Sweden," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 90-103.
    6. Börjesson, Maria, 2014. "Forecasting demand for high speed rail," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 81-92.
    7. Gutiérrez-Hita, Carlos & de la Cruz, Omar & Ramos-Melero, Rodolfo, 2022. "Infrastructure access charges, service differentiation, and strategic competition in the EU railway passenger market," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 87-104.
    8. Frédéric Dobruszkes, 2011. "Airline and high-speed rail competition in Europe: towards a comeback of air transport?," ERSA conference papers ersa10p180, European Regional Science Association.
    9. Basse, Reine Maria, 2013. "A constrained cellular automata model to simulate the potential effects of high-speed train stations on land-use dynamics in trans-border regions," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 23-37.
    10. Beria, Paolo & Quinet, Emile & de Rus, Gines & Schulz, Carola, 2012. "A comparison of rail liberalisation levels across four European countries," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 110-120.
    11. Markus Lang & Marc Laperrouza & Matthias Finger, 2013. "Competition Effects in a Liberalized Railway Market," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 375-398, September.
    12. Álvarez-SanJaime, Óscar & Cantos-Sanchez, Pedro & Moner-Colonques, Rafael & Sempere-Monerris, Jose J., 2016. "Rail access charges and internal competition in high speed trains," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 184-195.
    13. Ugo ARRIGO & Giacomo DI FOGGIA, 2014. "Theoretical And Viable Charging Models For Railway Infrastructure Access: An European Survey," Management Research and Practice, Research Centre in Public Administration and Public Services, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 6(2), pages 5-24, June.
    14. Martin Savelsbergh & Masoud Talebian, 2019. "Cost allocation under competition: a new rail access charging policy," EURO Journal on Transportation and Logistics, Springer;EURO - The Association of European Operational Research Societies, vol. 8(5), pages 511-534, December.
    15. Nash, Chris, 2010. "European rail reform and passenger services - the next steps," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 204-211.
    16. de Rus, Ginés & Socorro, M. Pilar, 2014. "Access pricing, infrastructure investment and intermodal competition," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 374-387.
    17. Rotoli, Francesco & Valeri, Eva & Ricci, Stefano & Rizzetto, Luca & Malavasi, Gabriele, 2018. "An analysis of the railway access charges regime in the Italian context," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 20-28.
    18. E. Ursavas & Stuart X. Zhu, 2018. "Integrated Passenger and Freight Train Planning on Shared-Use Corridors," Service Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(6), pages 1376-1390, December.
    19. Crozet, Yves & Chassagne, Florian, 2013. "Rail access charges in France: Beyond the opposition between competition and financing," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 247-254.
    20. Dobruszkes, Frédéric, 2011. "High-speed rail and air transport competition in Western Europe: A supply-oriented perspective," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 870-879, November.
    21. Álvarez-SanJaime, Óscar & Cantos-Sanchez, Pedro & Moner-Colonques, Rafael & Sempere-Monerris, Jose J., 2021. "The effect of cooperative infrastructure fees on high-speed rail and airline competition," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 125-141.
    22. Kang, Zhaoxia & Nash, Chris A. & Smith, Andrew S.J. & Wu, Jianhong, 2021. "Railway access charges in China: A comparison with Europe and Japan," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 11-20.
    23. Markus Lang & Marc Laperrouza & Matthias Finger, 2010. "The Effects of Increased Competition in a Vertically Separated Railway Market," Working Papers 0025, Swiss Economics.
    24. Börjesson, Maria & Rushid, Ajsuna R. & Liu, Chengxi, 2021. "The impact of optimal rail access charges on frequencies and fares," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 26.

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    Access charges High speed trains;

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