Luis Cadarso | José Ángel Martín Baos

A model for pricing freight rail transport access costs: economic and environmental perspectives

Tue, 08 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

An Optimization Model for Determining Access Costs in Rail Freight Transportation

Sun, 30 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Abstract

The liberalization of European railway markets necessitates a vertical separation governance framework, with Infrastructure Managers (IMs) providing resources and Freight Operating Companies (FOCs) utilizing them. Effective pricing of track access between these entities is vital for profitability and system efficiency. Additionally, achieving a modal shift of freight from road to rail is crucial for road safety and EU objectives alignment. This paper introduces a novel pricing methodology for train paths, optimizing infrastructure utilization by IMs while considering competitive dynamics and environmental impacts. It addresses challenges such as elastic demand, integrating network capacity into pricing strategies, and managing non-additive costs and path interdependencies. The proposed model incorporates dynamic demand patterns, temporally variable capacities, and total revenue considerations across the planning horizon. A discretization-based approach, focusing on irregular time intervals and unit freight tonnage, is developed for solving the continuous model. This involves linking freight tonnage units to a prototype train, with a discrete event simulation model employed. The objective function is also discretized, yielding a finite set of optimization variables to be optimized subject to simulation model. An application of this approach is demonstrated through a case study of the Mediterranean Corridor.

An optimal control model for determining freight rail transport access costs

Sun, 19 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Abstract

The liberalization of European railway markets, as outlined in European Directive EU 91/440/EEC, mandates a vertical separation governance structure within the railway industry. This vertical separation involves the establishment of two distinct entities: the Infrastructure Manager (IM), responsible for providing railway resources, and the Freight Operating Company (FOC), which operates freight services utilizing the infrastructure provided by the IM. Determining track access pricing between these entities is of utmost interest for European countries extensive monitorings are carried out has emerged as a significant and urgent challenge, one that has profound implications not only for the profitability of IMs and FOCs but also for the efficiency and quality of the entire railway system.

Furthermore, this issue is pivotal in achieving the target objectives set by the European Union (EU), which aims to achieve a modal shift away from road freight transport towards more sustainable modes of transportation. Specifically, the EU has set a goal of achieving a modal shift of 30% by 2030 and at least 50% by 2050 for shipments exceeding 300 km. In this context, rail freight transport is widely recognized as a potentially cost-effective and environmentally sustainable alternative due to its ability to realize economies of scale, reduce pollutant emissions, and mitigate other externalities.

In this paper, we propose an optimal control method for pricing train paths so that the IM maximizes the utilization of public funding while promoting competition in the rail freight market and taking into account both environmental impact and road safety.

The methodology presents several challenges. First, the model needs to account for elastic demand to capture the effect of costs and travel times on modal split. For this reason, road freight transportation is simplified, and a modal split is performed using a logit model.

Second, it involves replacing a basic toll per kilometer scheme with one that incorporates the capacity of the railway network into the pricing process. This means that congested routes should be subject to higher charges than less-demand routes. Hence, a dynamic cargo flow model with capacities on arcs has been chosen. The temporal aspect of the model allows for consideration of dynamic demand patterns and temporally variable capacities (day/night).

The third element of the model deals with a non-additive cost structure and interdependence of train paths when sharing railway segments. This has been achieved by pricing the total revenue received for the use of train paths over the entire planning period.