A new rail access charging policy: Hunter Valley coal chain case study

Title: A new rail access charging policy: Hunter Valley coal chain case study
Creator: Talebian, Masoud; Savelsbergh, Martin; Moffiet, Chad
Relation: Transport Policy Vol. 46, Issue February 2016, p. 101-108
Publisher Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2015.10.007
Publisher: Elsevier
Resource Type: journal article
Date: 2016
Description: We study a rail track access charging policy proposed by the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC), in which a discount on access charges is offered if above-rail operators employ the "efficient train". The efficient train is a train with a particular length, which results in the efficient use of a train path. The ARTC uses train paths to allocate access to the rail infrastructure. We discuss the motivation for and the goals of the proposed policy. As the new policy does not allow for differences in the equipment and track section, we argue that it may distort decisions about the net to gross tonne ratio, and it may not give the right incentives for future investment. Therefore, we conclude that defining the efficient train only in terms of length may not achieve its stated short term and long term goals and may have unintended consequences.
Subject: common costs; shared infrastructure; rail transportation; the efficient train; economic regulation
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1322645
Identifier: uon:24620
Identifier: ISSN:0967-070X
Language: eng
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