{"title":"ASSESSING THE EFFICIENT COST OF SUSTAINING BRITAIN'S RAIL NETWORK: PERSPECTIVES BASED ON ZONAL COMPARISONS","authors":"J. Kennedy, Andrew S. J. Smith","doi":"10.17863/CAM.5033","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"The objective of this paper is to inform the debate on how efficiency targets for Network Rail (formerly Railtrack) should be set during the 2002/03 Interim Review and beyond. Given the problems experienced during the 2000 Periodic Review, which focused on external benchmarks, we propose an internal benchmarking approach, drawing on data for seven geographical Zones within Railtrack (over the period 1995/96 to 2001/02). Our approach mirrors the yardstick competition method used in other UK regulated industries. Three efficiency measurement techniques are applied to this data (DEA; COLS; SFA). Our results suggest that Railtrack (as a whole) delivered substantial improvements in productivity in the early years after privatisation, although these savings were largely offset by the post-Hatfield cost increases. However, looking forward, Zonal efficiency differences suggest that the company could make significant savings in future years by applying (its own) best practice consistently across the network.","PeriodicalId":47475,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Transport Economics and Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9000,"publicationDate":"2004-06-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"41","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Transport Economics and Policy","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.5033","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 41
Abstract
The objective of this paper is to inform the debate on how efficiency targets for Network Rail (formerly Railtrack) should be set during the 2002/03 Interim Review and beyond. Given the problems experienced during the 2000 Periodic Review, which focused on external benchmarks, we propose an internal benchmarking approach, drawing on data for seven geographical Zones within Railtrack (over the period 1995/96 to 2001/02). Our approach mirrors the yardstick competition method used in other UK regulated industries. Three efficiency measurement techniques are applied to this data (DEA; COLS; SFA). Our results suggest that Railtrack (as a whole) delivered substantial improvements in productivity in the early years after privatisation, although these savings were largely offset by the post-Hatfield cost increases. However, looking forward, Zonal efficiency differences suggest that the company could make significant savings in future years by applying (its own) best practice consistently across the network.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Transport, Economics and Policy (JTEP) was first published over 40 years ago and quickly established itself as an essential source of information and debate on the economics of transport and its interface with transport policy. Today it continues to provide a much-needed focus for this specific area of transport research a single, accessible resource of international articles which also reflect the diverse nature of the current field. JTEP meets the challenge of innovation and change, regularly publishing the latest policy developments and their impact across the world.