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.

    Highlights Rail infrastructure maintenance costs vary with traffic even with no asset damage. Traffic can trigger maintenance to mitigate delays, despite no extra asset damage. EU track access charge legislation needs adapting to account for economic factors. Economic factors explain differences between engineering and econometric methods.


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    Title :

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


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Transport Policy ; 131 ; 13-21


    Publication date :

    2022-11-18


    Size :

    9 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English