IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/ctswps/2016_026.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Estimating the marginal cost of different vehicle types on rail infrastructure

Author

Listed:

Abstract

In this paper we combine engineering and economic methods to estimate the relative cost of damage mechanisms on the Swedish rail infrastructure. The former method is good at predicting damage from traffic, while the latter is suitable for establishing a relationship between damage and cost. We exploit the best features of both methods in a two-stage approach and demonstrate its applicability for rail infrastructure charging. Our estimations are based on 143 track sections comprising about 11 000 km of tracks. We demonstrate how the estimated relative costs of damage mechanisms can be used in order to calculate the marginal wear and tear cost of different vehicle types. The results are relevant for infrastructure managers in Europe who desire to differentiate their track access charges such that each vehicle pays its short run-marginal wear and tear cost, which can create a more efficient use of the rail infrastructure.

Suggested Citation

  • 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).
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:ctswps:2016_026
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.transportportal.se/swopec/CTS2016-26.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. Johansson, Per & Nilsson, Jan-Eric, 2004. "An economic analysis of track maintenance costs," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 277-286, July.
    3. Link, Heike & Nilsson, Jan-Eric, 2005. "Infrastructure," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 49-83, January.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nilsson , Jan-Eric Nilsson & Isacsson , Gunnar & Haraldsson, Mattias & Nerhagen, Lena & Odolinski, Kristofer & Swärdh, Jan-Erik & Vierth, Inge & Yarmukhamedov, Sherzod & Österström, Johannes, 2018. "The efficient use of infrastructure – is Sweden pricing traffic on its roads, railways, waters and airways at marginal costs?," Working papers in Transport Economics 2018:2, CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI).
    2. Odolinski, Kristofer, 2019. "The impact of cumulative tonnes on track failures: An empirical approach," Papers 2019:1, Research Programme in Transport Economics.

    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. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. Müller, Gernot, 2006. "Zur Ökonomie von Trassenpreissystemen," WIK Discussion Papers 279, WIK Wissenschaftliches Institut für Infrastruktur und Kommunikationsdienste GmbH.
    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. Odolinski , Kristofer, 2016. "The impact of cumulative tons on rail infrastructure maintenance costs," Working papers in Transport Economics 2016:28, CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI).
    10. 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.
    11. 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.
    12. Link, Heike & Götze, Wolfgang & Himanen, Veli, 2009. "Estimating the marginal costs of airport operation using multivariate time series models with correlated error terms," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 41-46.
    13. Marc Gaudry & Emile Quinet, 2015. "Correlation within SNCF administrative regions among track segment maintenance cost equation residuals of a country-wide model," Working Papers halshs-01112249, HAL.
    14. Engelbert Stockhammer & Paul Ramskogler, 2008. "Uncertainty and Exploitation in History," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(1), pages 175-194, March.
    15. 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.
    16. 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.
    17. 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.
    18. Gerlinde Fellner & Matthias Sutter, 2009. "Causes, Consequences, and Cures of Myopic Loss Aversion – An Experimental Investigation," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(537), pages 900-916, April.
    19. Andersson, Mats & Björklund, Gunilla, 2012. "Marginal railway track renewal costs: a survival data approach," Working papers in Transport Economics 2012:29, CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI).
    20. Smet, Koen, 2007. "Stuck in the middle? The structure of trade between South Africa and its major trading partners," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 115, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Marginal cost; Rail infrastructure; Maintenance; Access charging; Track damage; Econometric methods; Engineering simulation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L92 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Railroads and Other Surface Transportation
    • R48 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Government Pricing and Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:hhs:ctswps:2016_026. 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: CTS (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.cts.kth.se/ .

    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.