Hinterland strategies of port authorities: A case study of the port of Barcelona

Port authorities generally focus on the development of the local port area and play a minor role in the development of port hinterlands, whereas shippers, forwarders, barge and rail operators have always been involved in the port-hinterland connection. The increasing importance of intermodal hinterland networks for the competitive position of ports has urged port authorities to become active in the hinterland. This new role has already been suggested by different academics. However, limited empirical evidence exists of port authorities taking stakes in inland terminals or developing transport services. Barcelona, as one of the leading port authorities in this respect, is used as a case study in this paper. The case study provides insight in the components and execution of the hinterland strategy of Barcelona. It shows that the strategy of the port authority of Barcelona and the consequent active involvement in the hinterland has had a significant impact on attracting container volumes from distant hinterlands and improving the accessibility of the port.     

Estimating the marginal cost of railway track renewals using corner solution models

Economic theory advocates marginal cost pricing for efficient utilisation of transport infrastructure. A growing body of literature has emerged on the issue of rail marginal infrastructure wear and tear costs, but the majority of the work is focused on costs for infrastructure maintenance. Railway track renewals are a substantial part of an infrastructure manager’s budget, but in disaggregated statistical analyses they cause problems for traditional regression models since there is a piling up of values of the dependent variable at zero. Previous econometric work has sought to circumvent the problem by aggregation in some way. In this paper we instead apply corner solution models to disaggregate (track-section) data, including the zero observations. We derive track renewal cost elasticities with respect to traffic volumes and in turn marginal renewal costs using Swedish railway renewal data over the period 1999–2009. This paper is the first attempt in the literature to apply corner solution models, and in particular the two-part model, to disaggregate renewal cost data in railways. It is also the first paper that we are aware of to report usage elasticities specifically for renewal costs and therefore adds important new evidence to the previous literature where there is a paucity of studies on renewals and considerable uncertainty over the effects of rail traffic on renewal costs. In the Swedish context, we find that the inclusion of marginal track renewal costs in the track access pricing regime, which currently only reflects marginal maintenance costs, would add substantially to the existing track access charge. EU legislation requires that access charges reflect the ‘costs directly incurred as a result of operating the train service’, which should include a marginal renewal cost component. This change would also increase the cost recovery ratio of the Swedish infrastructure manager, thus meeting a policy objective of the national government.     

An alternative to FASTSIM for tangential solution of the wheel–rail contact

In most rail vehicle dynamics simulation packages, tangential solution of the wheel–rail contact is gained by means of Kalker's FASTSIM algorithm. While 5–25% error is expected for creep force estimation, the errors of shear stress distribution, needed for wheel–rail damage analysis, may rise above 30% due to the parabolic traction bound. Therefore, a novel algorithm named FaStrip is proposed as an alternative to FASTSIM. It is based on the strip theory which extends the two-dimensional rolling contact solution to three-dimensional contacts. To form FaStrip, the original strip theory is amended to obtain accurate estimations for any contact ellipse size and it is combined by a numerical algorithm to handle spin. The comparison between the two algorithms shows that using FaStrip improves the accuracy of the estimated shear stress distribution and the creep force estimation in all studied cases. In combined lateral creepage and spin cases, for instance, the error in force estimation reduces from 18% to less than 2%. The estimation of the slip velocities in the slip zone, needed for wear analysis, is also studied. Since FaStrip is as fast as FASTSIM, it can be an alternative for tangential solution of the wheel–rail contact in simulation packages.     

Revisiting port pricing; a proposal for seven port pricing principles

A review of seven large landlord port authorities around the world reveals a notable diversity of pricing structures. While port authorities increasingly act as commercial undertakings, port pricing often seems to be not driven by commercial considerations. In this paper, we argue that ports can be regarded as “business ecosystems” with multiple users. This provides a valuable perspective on pricing and raises the question of whether ports can be regarded as two-sided markets. We argue this is not the case. The business ecosystem perspective provides a basis for deducing seven pricing principles for port authorities that are detailed in the paper and illustrated with cases these principles. These pricing principles are broadly follow a direct user pays approach; capture value from “non-core” tenants; price aggressively for activities with a high strategic value; differentiate pricing based on price elasticity and connectivity improvements; maximize revenue from long-term lease agreements, price port dues competitively; critically consider differentiation of charges based on environmental performance; and finally use incentives to align interests of terminal operators and shipping lines. We conclude that the ecosystem perspective is central to the understanding of pricing decisions of port authorities and that various pricing issues deserve more attention.     

Bathymetry impacts on water exchange modelling through the Danish Straits

Deep and narrow channels in Danish Straits are one of the governing factors for the Baltic–North Sea water and salt exchange. The channels have a depth up to 50 m and a horizontal scale of a few hundred meters. The typical horizontal resolution used in current operational three dimensional Baltic–North Sea models is 1 nautical mile (nm) which can not well resolve these deep channels. In this paper, an alternative method is used to generate the 1 nm resolution bathymetry so that the deep channel is well resolved and at the same time the total water volume is roughly conserved. The impact of the new bathymetry on modelling water and salt transports as well as temperature and salinity structure is assessed by comparing a 3-year model run with the adjusted bathymetry and a control run with the averaged bathymetry. Volume and salt transports through the Great Belt are examined in the two runs. The results show that the model ocean is dominated by a typical two-layer transport (i.e., upper brackish Baltic outflow and lower saltier inflow), and the new bathymetry significantly enhances the two-layer transport. The lighter Baltic outflow is increased by 18% in the upper 10 m and saltier deep inflow is increased by 300% (in comparison with the old bathymetry) below 10 m. The total net transport into the Baltic Sea is increased by 13%. The temperature and salinity structure is also significantly influenced by the bathymetry, especially during inflow events. The stratification is strengthened and the bottom salinity is increased in Danish Straits and adjacent waters. The bathymetry impact is found significant through the entire 3-year model run period, and the signal is propagated to a large area covering the Stopple Channel. Comparison with observations show that such changes are positive improvements to the models. The results suggest that the deep channels in the Danish Straits have to be carefully resolved in order to correctly simulate the Baltic–North Sea water exchange.     

A Non-Linear Rubber Spring Model for Rail Vehicle Dynamics Analysis

A non-linear, dynamic rubber spring model is proposed. It mainly aims at representing the mechanical behaviour of rubber suspension components in rail vehicle dynamics. The model is one-dimensional, has five parameters and is based on a superposition of elastic, friction and viscous forces. The model is implemented in the computer packages MATLAB and GENSYS. Comparisons between model and measurement results for harmonic excitations show good agreement. A procedure to determine the model parameters from only two measured force-displacement loops is described. The model represents a reasonable compromise between accuracy and computational effort and should be a suitable tool in rail vehicle dynamics analysis.     

Involvement in clubs or voluntary associations, social networks and activity generation: a path analysis

Leisure activities have received increasing attention from travel behavior researchers over the past decade. However, these activities are often treated as a single category, neglecting their differences. Whereas most leisure activities are flexible, club activities are usually scheduled longer in advance and are more fixed in time, location and company. Hence, trip-generating properties of club activities are likely to differ from those of other leisure activities. As very little is known about involvement in clubs or voluntary associations in relation to trip generation, voluntary association activities deserve further research in relation to travel. Therefore, in this paper a path analysis is conducted, analyzing the relationships between participation in clubs or voluntary associations, trip frequencies, and social network characteristics. The analyses are based on data collected in 2011 in Eindhoven in the Netherlands in a survey among 516 respondents. The results show interesting relationships between the social context and involvement in clubs. They indicate that people become club members through their social networks, and frequent club activities increase social network size. Family oriented people were found to go less often to clubs. Club membership and the frequency of going to club activities were also found to be affected by socio-demographics, such as gender, age, education, work, presence of young children in the household and owning a season ticket for public transport.