Assessment of Capacity Charges for Shared-Use Rail Lines

Abstract

North American freight rail demand is projected to increase, and new passenger services are being proposed to operate simultaneously over portions of the freight infrastructure. Capacity allocation and corresponding charges have become important issues in shared-use rail lines. This study developed new approaches suitable for North American shared-use corridors with capacity models and base train equivalent concepts to estimate the possible capacity charges in congestion cost and opportunity cost. The possible access charging schemes were also assessed and compared with the current regime (infrastructure cost only). The evaluation of capacity charges demonstrates that owning railroads may bear significant congestion or opportunity cost, or both, resulting from the addition of passenger services. Opportunity cost, which represents the profit loss caused by lack of capacity and is paid by the owning railroad, is higher than the congestion cost. Therefore, capacity charges should be considered in the negotiation process between freight railroads and passenger operators. The proposed approaches facilitate the estimation of capacity charges from additional passenger trains with rational and quantitative methods. The charging schemes can assist railroads and operators in achieving a mutually satisfactory agreement.