Scandinavian Working Papers in Economics

Working papers in Transport Economics,
CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI)

No 2018:10: Railway line capacity utilisation and its impact on maintenance costs

Kristofer Odolinski () and Hans E. Boysen
Additional contact information
Kristofer Odolinski: CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI), Postal: Centrum för Transportstudier (CTS), Teknikringen 10, 100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
Hans E. Boysen: CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI), Postal: Centrum för Transportstudier (CTS), Teknikringen 10, 100 44 Stockholm, Sweden

Abstract: In this paper, we analyse how railway maintenance costs are affected by different levels of railway line capacity utilisation. Previous studies have focused on the wear and tear of the infrastructure, while this paper shows that it is important to also acknowledge the heterogeneity of the maintenance production environment. Specifically, we estimate marginal maintenance costs for traffic using econometric methods on a panel dataset from Sweden and show that these costs increase with line capacity utilisation. The results are significant considering that current EU regulation (2015/909) states that track access charges can be based on marginal costs, with the aim of achieving an efficient use of available infrastructure capacity.

Keywords: maintenance; marginal cost; rail infrastructure; capacity; track access charges

JEL-codes: L92; R48

12 pages, First version: May 30, 2018. Revised: October 30, 2018. Earlier revisions: October 30, 2018, October 30, 2018.

Note: Published in Journal of Rail Transport Planning & Management, Volume 9, May 2019, Pages 22-33.

Full text files 

j.jrtpm.2018.12.001 PDF-file Full text

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