IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/128816.html

Financing the Freight Railway Infrastructure: An Underappreciated Policy Option?

Author

Listed:
  • Pittman, Russell

Abstract

Reform and restructuring of state-owned monopoly freight railways have generally followed one of two strategies. Each has had some success, but the European model of competing train operating companies over a monopoly track has suffered from a lack of reliable infrastructure funding, while the Americas model of competition among vertically integrated railways has suffered from the difficulty of protecting “captive” shippers. This paper proposes a third option that arguably addresses the weaknesses of both models: the “competitive rules joint venture” already observed in US, Canadian, and Mexican port and belt railroads.

Suggested Citation

  • Pittman, Russell, 2026. "Financing the Freight Railway Infrastructure: An Underappreciated Policy Option?," MPRA Paper 128816, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:128816
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/128816/1/MPRA_paper_128816.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Campos, J., 2001. "Lessons from railway reforms in Brazil and Mexico," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 85-95, April.
    2. Armstrong, Mark & Doyle, Chris & Vickers, John, 1996. "The Access Pricing Problem: A Synthesis," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(2), pages 131-150, June.
    3. Maurer, Stephen M. & Scotchmer, Suzanne, 2014. "The Essential Facilities Doctrine: The Lost Message of Terminal Railroad," TSE Working Papers 14-476, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    4. Pittman Russell, 2017. "The Underappreciated Connection between Rail Restructuring Strategies and Financing," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 16(2), pages 161-169, June.
    5. Jean-Jacques Laffont & Jean Tirole, 2001. "Competition in Telecommunications," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262621509, December.
    6. Federico Boffa & John Panzar, 2012. "Bottleneck co-ownership as a regulatory alternative," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 41(2), pages 201-215, April.
    7. Chris Nash, 2005. "Rail Infrastructure Charges in Europe," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 39(3), pages 259-278, September.
    8. Pittman, Russell, 2007. "Options for Restructuring the State-Owned Monopoly Railway," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 179-198, January.
    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. Giovannetti, E., 2003. "‘How Different is Wireless Access? Implications for Internet Mergers," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0307, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    2. Carlo Cambini & Piercarlo Ravazzi & Tommaso Valletti, 2000. "La tariffazione dell'accesso nelle telecomunicazioni: principi economici e interventi regolatori in alcuni paesi industrializzati," ICER Working Papers 10-2000, ICER - International Centre for Economic Research.
    3. SHIM, Sunghee & OH, Jungsuk, 2006. "Service Bundling and the Role of Access Charge in the Broadband Internet Service Market," MPRA Paper 3553, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. R. Pittman, 2009. "Railway Mergers and Railway Alliances: Competition Issues and Lessons for Other Network Industries," Competition and Regulation in Network Industries, Intersentia, vol. 10(3), pages 259-279, September.
    5. Jan Bouckaert & Frank Verboven, 2004. "Price Squeezes in a Regulatory Environment," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 321-351, August.
    6. Joan Calzada & Francesc Trillas, 2005. "The interconnection prices in telecomunications: from theory to practice," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 173(2), pages 85-125, June.
    7. David Mandy, 2007. "When Do Input Prices Matter For Make-Or-Buy Decisions?," Working Papers 0701, Department of Economics, University of Missouri.
    8. Waters II, William G., 2007. "Evolution of Railroad Economics," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 11-67, January.
    9. Pittman, Russell, 2016. "Reforming and Restructuring Ukrzaliznytsia: A Crucial Task for Ukrainian Reformers," MPRA Paper 76028, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Kotakorpi, Kaisa, 2002. "Access Pricing and Competition in Telecommunications," Discussion Papers 283, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    11. Vasiliki Skreta, 2005. "Interconnection Negotiations between Telecommunication Networks and Universal Service Objectives," UCLA Economics Online Papers 348, UCLA Department of Economics.
    12. Armstrong Mark, 2008. "Access Pricing, Bypass and Universal Service in Post," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 7(2), pages 1-16, June.
    13. 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.
    14. Neil Gandal, 2003. "New Horizons: Telecommunications Policy In Israel In The 21st Century," Israel Economic Review, Bank of Israel, vol. 1(2), pages 101-111.
    15. Riechmann, Christoph, 2000. "Strategic pricing of grid access under partial price-caps -- electricity distribution in England and Wales," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 187-207, April.
    16. Demetrius Yannelis, 2002. "On access pricing with network externalities," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 30(2), pages 186-190, June.
    17. Martinez-Rodriguez, Miguel & Chyong, Chi Kong & Fitzgerald, Timothy & Vazquez, Miguel & Hidalgo, Antonio, 2026. "Pipeline regulation for hydrogen: choosing between paths and networks," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    18. Muñoz-Acevedo, Ángela & Grzybowski, Lukasz, 2023. "Impact of roaming regulation on revenues and prices of mobile operators in the EU," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    19. Gual, Jordi, 2003. "Market Definition in the Telecoms Industry," CEPR Discussion Papers 3988, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    20. Ku, Hyeon-Mo & Kim, Jae-Cheol, 1998. "Non-discriminatory access pricing for multiple entrants," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 173-183.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation
    • L92 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Railroads and Other Surface Transportation
    • R42 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Government and Private Investment Analysis; Road Maintenance; Transportation Planning

    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:pra:mprapa:128816. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    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.