Title: The role of freight transport in railway network investment evaluation

Authors: Juha Saranen, Olli-Pekka Hilmola

Addresses: Lappeenranta University of Technology, Kouvola Research Unit, Prikaatintie 9, FIN-45100 Kouvola, Finland. ' Lappeenranta University of Technology, Kouvola Research Unit, Prikaatintie 9, FIN-45100 Kouvola, Finland

Abstract: Rarely are volumes of railway freight operations considered through Cost-Benefit Analyses (CBA) of infrastructure investments in European Union – despite the fact that freight volumes and shares in certain countries are high. The objective of this paper is to estimate the effect of specific railway network investment alternatives on the freight operator surplus. The results suggest that goods transportation cost should be included in the analysis, when evaluating railway investments. Not only would they play a pivotal role when choosing from among investment alternatives, but also a larger number of railway investments would be evaluated as socio-economically profitable.

Keywords: railways investment; freight transport; simulation; CBA; cost-benefit analysis; investment evaluation; infrastructure investments; European Union; EU; freight operator surplus; goods transportation costs.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISE.2009.024074

International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering, 2009 Vol.4 No.4, pp.455 - 470

Published online: 25 Mar 2009 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article