Risk and reward in rail contracting

This workshop considered the role of risks and rewards in rail transport by considering evidence on the impacts of industry structure, franchising and infrastructure charges. A schema for the allocation of risks and rewards was developed, which indicated that strategic risks should be borne by authorities and operational risks by operators, but that tactical risks were more difficult to allocate and appropriate reward mechanisms more difficult to design. The extent to which these difficulties can be addressed by competitive tendering and alternatives such as trusting partnerships and negotiated performance based contracts was considered.     

Rail policy and performance in Australia

This paper presents a brief review of rail policy and the performance of the rail system in Australia, and draws some comparisons with the rail systems of Western Europe. Australian railways present a somewhat paradoxical mixture of booming traffic with severe financial problems, poor productivity and — in some cases — outdated equipment. The competitive environment they face varies from state to state both in the freedom accorded to road competition and the degree to which the railways themselves are permitted to take decisions on a commercial basis. Whilst some railways in Australia — notably Westrail — have virtually completed the transition from a government department to a commercial enterprise, others have only just begun.     

Migration of railway freight transport from command economy to market economy: The case of China

In recent years, Chinese railway freight transport has been facing great challenges from transport market reformation and economic expansion. Although the total volume of railway freight has been increasing, its market share has decreased greatly, especially at the beginning of migration from command economy to market economy. This paper considers four aspects believed to be responsible for the loss of the railway freight market share. First, we review the history and current situation of the Chinese railway freight transport and study the relationship between economic development and freight transport in China. Second, the causes resulting in the loss of the market share of railway freight are analysed in detail. Third, the current measures taken by Chinese Railways (CR) to restore its competitiveness are discussed. The effects of these measures on railway traffic volume, market share and productivity are also studied. Finally, the way forward for the future of CR is discussed. It is concluded that CR has not yet adapted sufficiently to new economic conditions, although in recent years progress has been made. Further reform will be needed.     

A structural analysis of vehicle design responses to Corporate Average Fuel Economy policy

The US Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulations are intended to influence automaker vehicle design and pricing choices. CAFE policy has been in effect for the past three decades, and new legislation has raised standards significantly. We present a structural analysis of automaker responses to generic CAFE policies. We depart from prior CAFE analyses by focusing on vehicle design responses in long-run oligopolistic equilibrium, and we view vehicles as differentiated products, taking demand as a general function of price and product attributes. We find that under general cost, demand, and performance functions, single-product profit maximizing firm responses to CAFE standards follow a distinct pattern: firms ignore CAFE when the standard is low, treat CAFE as a vehicle design constraint for moderate standards, and violate CAFE when the standard is high. Further, the point and extent of first violation depends upon the penalty for violation, and the corresponding vehicle design is independent of further standard increases. Thus, increasing CAFE standards will eventually have no further impact on vehicle design if the penalty for violation is also not increased. We implement a case study by incorporating vehicle physics simulation, vehicle manufacturing and technology cost models, and a mixed logit demand model to examine equilibrium powertrain design and price decisions for a fixed vehicle body. Results indicate that equilibrium vehicle design is not bound by current CAFE standards, and vehicle design decisions are directly determined by market competition and consumer preferences. We find that with increased fuel economy standards, a higher violation penalty than the current stagnant penalty is needed to cause firms to increase their design fuel economy at equilibrium. However, the maximum attainable improvement can be modest even if the penalty is doubled. We also find that firms’ design responses are more sensitive to variation in fuel prices than to CAFE standards, within the examined ranges.     

Workshop report - Benchmarking the outcome of competitive tendering

Workshop 1 was concerned to identify the real results of competitive tendering, and experience on how to make it work better, using evidence from the rail and bus sectors in a large number of countries spread around the world. It was found that competitive tendering had generally been successful in terms of quality and costs, but problems had occurred in a number of cases, so careful attention must be paid to the design of tendering exercises, details of the contract, risk-sharing arrangements and the approach to any re-negotiation found to be necessary. As a result, an important conclusion is that the tendering authority needs a high degree of expertise in these issues; any thought that competitive tendering relieves the public authority of the need for expertise in public transport is mistaken.     

如何确保汽缸盖密封质量?

更换发动机汽缸盖密封垫圈是一项慎之又慎的工作。如果我们充分了解并掌握发动机汽缸盖密封垫的更换技巧,那么在维修时,就会避免诸如将汽缸盖擦伤这类不该发生的失误,从而确保维修质量,提高维修效率。