Rail travel and the Leisure market in great Britain

The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors influencing and inducing leisure travel; to convey the sensitivity of rail travel receipts to the performance of the economy and more particularly family and personal disposable incomes; to examine the potential for further market research; and finally, to determine ways and means of attracting marginal revenue in the sustainable recreation/tourism sphere to a major public sector asset.

The paper focuses on leisure marketing by Britain's national railway corporation, British Rail (BR), and the relevant activities of its three passenger business sectors: Network SouthEast (NSE), which operates regional and local services in London and the South East (though not the London ‘tube’ system); Regional Railways, which operates regional and local services elsewhere in Great Britain; and InterCity, which operates the long distance express services.

The paper reviews BR's fares promotions of recent years and in particular draws on some examples taken from Regional Railways. This sector is now the only business of British Rail which in principle is subject to a significant public grant, to meet the obligation of a minimum level of service on social grounds. Of the other two passenger businesses, Network SouthEast receives a grant but the current intention is that it should operate on a breakeven basis from the 1992/93 financial year; InterCity runs on a purely commercial basis.     

Appraisal of rail investment projects: recent British experience

There has long been conflict over the degree to which railways should follow commercial or social investment criteria. This paper outlines the components of a comprehensive social cost‐benefit analysis of railway investment, and then describes the current approach in Britain. British Rail investment proposals are subject to a purely financial appraisal, although in the subsidized sectors of the railway this is subject to the proviso that a ‘broadly comparable’ level of service should be maintained. Local authorities and private operators are able to apply for a central government grant towards the cost of schemes they sponsor. But grant is only payable in respect of external benefits—that is, benefits other than to public transport users. Sponsors are also expected to seek contributions from private developers wherever possible. The difficulties to which this approach leads are discussed, and illustrated with two case studies of actual schemes. In one, it appears that failing to consider disbenefits to bus operators (and in turn to users of bus services) could lead to investments being undertaken which are not justified. In the other, a scheme which yields a high Net Present Value could not go ahead, in the form that we evaluated, because there is no way of recouping enough of the user benefits as revenue. Both are examples of the sort of distorting effect on decision‐making the current regime may have.     

An assessment of cost management regimes in British rail infrastructure provision

Over the last decade, British railway engineering efficiency has come under close scrutiny, with general perceptions of massive maintenance cost escalations and a general lack of control over these costs. This is exemplified by headline figures such as Roger Ford??s perceptions of a 50% rise in maintenance costs since privatisation (Mod Railw 638:8, 2001), or the more recent figure of a doubling in all rail costs since privatisation presented by Shaoul (Public Money Manag 26:151?C158, 2006). Little, however, has appeared in the academic literature on the subject. This paper considers these issues through an examination of British railway infrastructure costs over the period 1980?C2009, which has seen three different infrastructure management regimes in place??the nationalised BR (1980?C1994), the privatised Railtrack (1995?C2001) and the not for dividend Network Rail (2002?C2010). Infrastructure costs are examined in total for all operating costs (including maintenance but excluding renewals and depreciation), and under two sub categories, signalling and management costs. The results show that in the case of total operating costs, by the end of the period (up to 2010) these had returned to pre-privatisation levels. The results also show that costs increased significantly following privatisation due to imperfect competition in sub contractor markets, but large declines in the last 6?years have eradicated most of these costs increases, although still do not match the best achieved under full public sector management. Management costs associated with the infrastructure on the other hand have increased significantly.     

Rail policy in Britain — What next?

The 1974 Railways Act set British Rail (BR) the rather vague objective of providing a passenger service broadly comparable with that then existing within a given level of support. For the first few years under the Act, BR succeeded in operating within the financial constraints imposed, but only by considerable increases in charges and by negotiating wage settlements which implied declining real wages. From 1978 on, rising labour costs and reduction in traffic led to a rapidly developing crisis in BR's financial position.The position of each section of BR's business is discussed briefly. It is shown that the designation of some sectors as being purely commercial is inappropriate, since this means that benefits to users and to the community at large are ignored in decision-making. Similarly, the direction to maintain social passenger services at a given level means that finance and investment are concentrated unduly on preservation of the existing pattern of service, rather than on providing value for money. In both sectors, the likelihood is that in general fares are too high and services too frequent.At an operational level, the criterion of maximising the (weighted) volume of traffic carried is advocated as a practical way of choosing between alternative fare and service-level packages. More broadly based strategic studies would be needed to decide on the weights to be adopted, the level of finance to be made available, and the overall strategy.     

Changing relationships in the financing of elderly and handicapped transportation services

This paper reports the results of a national survey of providers of specialized transportation services who are recipients of UMTA Section 5 or Section 9 funding and report owning demand responsive vehicles (Section 15 report). The study reports a variety of service measures, financial data, cost containment activities and related information for fiscal years 1980 and 1982. For a limited number of systems, financial data for fiscal year 1984 are also reported. Analysis of the data indicates a general but as yet uncertain trend towards declining UMTA participation in funding these systems, increased fares and increased usage of cost containment and cost reduction techniques by the responding systems. Should the reported trends continue, then the responding systems could be expected to have financial difficulty in complying with the currently proposed regulations for the enforcement of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.     

Competition in the UK passenger railway industry: Prospects and problems

The promotion of competition between passenger train operators was a key aim of the 1992- 97 Conservative Government when it privatized British Rail. Although the potential for competition in the market was constrained through regulation at the time of the sale, competition for the market became intense. Regulatory controls are now being relaxed and the promotion of competition remains central to the present Labour Government's rail strategy, particularly in the form of a redefined and reinvigorated franchising programme. It seems to be generally accepted in policy-making circles that it is both possible and desirable to encourage competition in the UK's railway industry on the grounds that it can further enhance service quality across the network. This paper highlights some qualifications to this position and suggests that, for various reasons, a strong policy emphasis on market liberalization may be impractical or unsuitable, at least in the short to medium term.     

High speed rail passenger segmentation and ticketing channel preference

A multi-channel strategy for the purposes of marketing and ticketing has been widely employed in various fields, including the transportation industry, yet few transportation studies have investigated ticket channel-related issues. This study thus adopts Taiwan High Speed Rail (THSR) as a case study to identify passengers’ perceptions regarding key factors that affect the channel preference through which they receive their services, particularly across a four-stage ticket purchasing process, including information enquiry, booking, payment, and ticket pick-up. To investigate these key factors, we base the framework of our research model upon customers’ perceived value perspective, adopting a multinomial logit model to examine the influence of channel attributes on HSR passengers’ preferences. The relationship among the decisions made by these passengers at each ticket purchasing stage is also examined. The findings of our study demonstrate that perceived risk, perceived benefit, and perceived ease of use are critical factors influencing passengers’ channel preference throughout the ticket-purchasing process. Perceptual differences are proven to exist due to various demographic factors and trip characteristics. The conclusions of this study have implications for THSR management to design appropriate ticketing channel services for certain types of passengers and can also be generally applied to multiple distribution channels in conventional railway system and intercity bus services.     

Life cycle assessment of High Speed Rail in China

China has built the world’s largest High Speed Rail (HSR) network. Its environmental impacts have been examined by the means of life cycle assessment (LCA) which describes the whole picture of the HSR system instead of single stages, with a case study for the high-speed railway that links Beijing and Shanghai. The research employs the China-specific life cycle inventory database Chinese Core Life Cycle Database (CLCD). Vehicle operation dominates most impact categories, while vehicle manufacturing/maintenance/disposal and infrastructure construction contribute mostly to mineral consumption (43% and 38%) and organic compounds in water (54% for infrastructure construction). Several scenarios are developed to explore effects of changes in HSR development, utilization, electricity mix, and infrastructure planning and construction. Suggestions are provided for improving the life cycle environmental performance of China’s HSR systems.     

铁路运输企业视角下的公、铁运输企业短期博弈分析

在"一带一路"战略背景下,铁路物流中心的公铁联运业务至关重要。公铁联运业务各主体的协同存在易变性,资源双方是否信任会影响各自的策略选择。本文以铁路运输企业为主导,铁路运输企业接到客户公铁联运订单时会借助平台发布公路运输需求信息,公路运输企业根据自身情况向铁路运输企业表达意愿,最后铁路运输企业根据其采取的策略找到自身是否接受合作的均衡条件。本文通过对公、铁运输企业的短期博弈分析,找到双方合作的均衡条件,为双方利益分配奠定基础。     

上海轨道交通网络运营设备维护管理系统设计概述

从上海轨道交通全网络安全运营的实际需求出发,概述了网络化运营情况下设备维护管理系统的功能特点,详细分析和探讨了从城市轨道交通设备维护系统的应用及网络和软件架构的设计特点。     

Transformation of transport policy in Great Britain

The British Government recently issued a white paper on its future transport strategy. Its central precept is unambiguous: current trends in traffic are unsustainable, from the point of view of the environment, business efficiency, health, and the unfeasibility of providing growth in road capacity that would keep pace with predicted growth in traffic. Much of the policy logic in the white paper stems from the explicit abandonment of `predict-and-provide' as a desirable — or possible — strategy. This leads to a recognition of the importance of a co-ordinated approach to public transport, walking and cycling, together with policies aimed at reducing less necessary travel where possible; ensuring that the costs of congestion and environmental pollution are, as far as practical, met by those who cause them (in which the revenue from new pricing systems would be kept under local control and used for transport improvements); an emphasis on better maintenance and management of the road system rather than increasing its capacity; consideration of the effects on transport of other policies in land-use, health, education etc; development of institutional structures or contractual arrangements able to bring these changes about; and conditions in which people's everyday behaviour and attitudes may be in harmony with policy, finance and environmental constraints. These themes did not arise out of the blue following the general election in 1997. They evolved over many years, especially in nearly ten years of intense discussion connected with the previous two governments' recognition that the 1989 road programme (`Roads to Prosperity'), in spite of its size and expense, would still not be nearly sufficient to keep pace with traffic growth, as well as being environmentally damaging. The process of discussion and argument has not ceased with publication of the white paper. A very interesting feature of the current debate is that its central argument is widely (though not unanimously) accepted in the media, with great emphasis on the problems of implementation. The author argues that the policy shift is genuine and firmly grounded in research, though with a number of real problems in implementation, research and methodology that will have to be addressed.     

Total factor productivity growth in Australian national railways — An application of shadow prices

The usual formulation of total factor productivity (TFP) growth is generalised to a multi-output, multi-input production process. The general expression derived makes no assumption about the objective of the firm, nor about the relationship between prices and associated marginal values. It can therefore accommodate, in addition to various firm objectives, the introduction of shadow pricing into the measurement of productivity growth. The theory is applied to the case of the Australian National Railways Commission (AN Rail), where excess staff levels, and the delivery of certain ‘community service obligations’ provide examples of the application of shadow prices. Rates of TFP growth are calculated by applying both the traditional formulation and the more general one accommodating any divergence between actual and shadow prices. When shadow pricing is accounted for, the average compound rate of TFP growth in AN Rail falls by up to 37%.     

A new Swedish railroad policy: Separation of infrastructure and traffic production

In 1988 the Swedish nationalized railway company was separated into two separate entities, the Swedish State Railways in charge of running rail transport and the National Rail Administration, responsible for investment in and maintenance of rail infrastructure. This paper describes institutional aspects of this new railway policy. It also specifies methodological and practical problems in the computation of social marginal costs for using rail as well as road infrastructure. It is furthermore made likely that present fuel charges on road vehicles, but not the new rail use charges, are insufficient to cover costs for infrastructure use.     

关于上海轨道交通12号线停车线长度的探讨

对上海轨道交通12号线配线车站设置的停车线长度,包括1列位、1列位＋1节车和2列位进行了探讨,对这几种停车线长度进行了比较,并对具体车站停车线长度进行了详细设计和计算。     

Mass transportation needs and financing in the United States

The U.S. Department of Transportation (1974) recently completed a comprehensive study of mass transportation needs and methods for financing these needs. Using information from the 1974 National Transportation Study, the study determined the level of capital and operating funds that would be required to implement the 1972–90 long-range plans and 1972–80 short-range programs of the states and urbanized areas. It then analyzed various funding mechanisms at state and local levels for financing their portions of these plans and programs.It was found that urban areas, in general, not only plan to stabilize transit fares in the face of rising costs, but also intend to put $ 23.6 billion into capital investments through 1980 and an additional $ 34.6 billion through 1990. Of the total $ 58.2 billion in capital expenditures by 1990, 63% would be expended by the nine largest urbanized areas; 27.8% by the New York area alone. Rail transit and commuter railroad costs would account for 90% of the nine largest urbanized areas.States and localities would be able to carry the financial burden of mass transportation improvements, even if the proposed 1980 programs were implemented in their entirety, given current levels of Federal assistance. However, there would have to be a substantial financial commitment from the states and localities and some hard decisions made by them about public expenditure priorities, fare policies, and taxation levels, and policies to discourage automobile usage. This underscores the need for careful review of their overall plans and programs by state and local officials before making financial commitments.     

Modeling railway disruption lengths with Copula Bayesian Networks

Decreasing the uncertainty in the lengths of railway disruptions is a major help to disruption management. To assist the Dutch Operational Control Center Rail (OCCR) during disruptions, we propose the Copula Bayesian Network method to construct a disruption length prediction model. Computational efficiency and fast inference features make the method attractive for the OCCR’s real-time decision making environment. The method considers the factors influencing the length of a disruption and models the dependence between them to produce a prediction. As an illustration, a model for track circuit (TC) disruptions in the Dutch railway network is presented in this paper. Factors influencing the TC disruption length are considered and a disruption length model is constructed. We show that the resulting model’s prediction power is sound and discuss its real-life use and challenges to be tackled in practice.     

门禁系统在轨道交通中的应用

门禁系统作为轨道交通重要的安防管理系统正逐步得到重视和推广应用。以上海市轨道交通10号线工程为例,从门禁系统构成、功能、工作模式等方面,重点介绍了该系统在轨道交通中的应用,并详述了门禁系统控制中心、车站和现场三级管理。     

On joint railway and housing development strategy

Transit Oriented Development (TOD) with railway service is recognized as a sustainable mode of development for highly dense megacities. In addition to providing safe and efficient transit services, reducing auto dependence and therefore less need for highway expansions, the improved accessibility of TOD influences commuters’ residential location choices and the resultant housing value. Traditionally, statistical approaches have been used to estimate the relationship between railway development and housing value for individual sites. To some degree, TOD has also been studied with integrated land-use transport models. While useful, they lack an analytical framework to study the region-wide impacts of TOD on residential location and travel choices and the resultant land value changes. In this study, the joint railway and housing development strategy is modeled based on a combined equilibrium formulation with the bid-rent process. The problem is formulated as a mathematical program with equilibrium constraints, in which the upper level optimizes the objective for the joint development strategy by deciding on the combination of housing supplies and railway service levels. Analytical results are obtained for a single corridor in a multi-modal transport network, which are further illustrated by sensitivity analyses. A numerical example is constructed to demonstrate the approach and compare with other separate development strategies. The results generally confirm the synergy between railway and housing developments.     

水平转体施工技术在北京轨道交通房山线的应用

北京轨道交通房山线区间桥梁工程在丰西铁路编组站区域内需4次跨越铁路,详细介绍了采用水平转体施工技术的4座桥梁设计、施工要点及技术关键,并在总结回顾的基础上,分析了目前我国水平转体技术桥梁设计施工受到的制约因素,为今后在跨越高速公路、铁路、河流等桥梁设计提供参考。     

Deregulation of inter‐city coach services in Britain

Public transport in Britain has traditionally operated under conditions of regulation. The 1930 Road Traffic Act imposed controls upon the quantity and quality of transport regulations, with an abolition of the quantity controls associated with inter‐city coach services. The principal objectives of the Act were to eliminate restriction upon entry to the market and to promote competition between coach operators.

This paper is based on research which was undertaken to establish the impact of the 1980 Transport Act upon express (inter‐city) coach services in Britain. The effects of the legislation are examined in relation to the experience of various coach operators, British Rail, and the inter‐city traveller. This provides evidence of the way in which the supply of, and demand for, public transport behaves in a competitive, deregulated environment. It is shown that at least in net terms, the consumer has enjoyed short‐term benefits. Greater uncertainty surrounds the long‐term situation. The main competition has been confined to the principal trunk routes and has taken place between the state‐owned undertaking of National Express and British Rail. The outcome of deregulation for the private sector has been disappointing.

The paper identified similarities which exist between inter‐city and local public transport services. In this context, the lessons derived from express deregulation are employed to suggest likely developments in the deregulation of stage carriage (local) services in Britain.