Railway Investment Research Articles

Transportation and regional inequality: the impact of railways in the Nordic countries, 1860–1960

Before industrialisation the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden) were part of Europe's poor periphery, but over the last century these countries have become some of the richest in the world. This article analyses the origins of Nordic growth from the late nineteenth century, focusing on a previously neglected topic: the role of transportation. We argue that transportation, and most notably large investments in railways, played a key role in Nordic industrialisation. Railways made the exploitation and exportation of natural resources possible in what had previously been isolated areas and helped fuel a process of rural-based industrialisation. By creating conditions that favoured migration towards previously scarcely populated, but economically booming areas, Nordic industrialisation was paralleled by a reduction in regional inequality as measured in per capita GDP. We assert that railways were built before local population growth and helped shape the economic landscape of the entire region. We illustrate these points using maps based on Historical Geographic Information Systems (HGIS) highlighting railways, regional GDP and population densities from the mid nineteenth century until 1960.

The Chinese Maritime Silk Road Initiative

The Mediterranean Sea is one of the most important maritime highways in international trade and a marine traffic hub at the western end of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This essay examines the role of Mediterranean countries in the construction and realization of the Twenty-First Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative, one of the BRI’s two main components. China’s maritime activity in the Mediterranean Sea and its shores consists mainly of constructing and operating ports or railways. The investments in sea-lanes and railways complement each other and jointly open new trade links between China and the Eurasia-Africa zone. However, the implementation of a Maritime Silk Road via the Mediterranean Sea cannot succeed unless there is a way to bridge the gap between economic interests and the capacity to protect those interests.

Are all infrastructure investments created equal? The case of Portugal

Using a newly developed data set, we analyze the effects of infrastructure investment on economic performance in Portugal. A vector-autoregressive approach estimates the elasticity and marginal products of twelve types of infrastructure investment on private investment, employment, and output. We find that the largest long-term accumulated effects come from investments in railroads, ports, airports, health, education, and telecommunications. For these infrastructures, the output multipliers suggest that these investments pay for themselves through additional tax revenues. For investments in ports, airports and education infrastructures, the bulk of the effects are short-term demand-side effects, while for railroads, health, and telecommunications, the impact is mostly of a long-term and supply-side nature. Finally, investments in health and airports exhibit decreasing marginal returns, with railroads, ports, and telecommunications being relatively stable. In terms of the other infrastructure assets, the economic effects of investments in municipal roads, electricity and gas, and refineries are insignificant, while investments in national roads, highways, and waste and waste water have positive economic effects but too small to improve the public budget. Clearly, from a policy perspective, not all infrastructure investments in Portugal are created equal.

Optimization of railway infrastructures rehabilitation based on multicriteria analysis

The socio-economic objectives of transport projects are generally related to the improvement of travel conditions for goods and passengers as well as the improvement of the quality of the environment and the wellbeing of the served population. Railways infrastructure projects are always complex because of the many variables involved. In railway rehabilitation, in particular, social, economic and environmental variables take on considerable importance. These variables contribute strongly to the selection of the intervention project to be performed. Historically, multicriteria evaluation methods were developed to select the best alternative from a set of competing options. Multicriteria Analysis is applied for comparison of alternative projects, allowing taking into account different criteria simultaneously. It presents a framework in which all the stakeholders can participate actively in the process of decision making and in the explicit resolution of problems. The paper intends to frame the multicriteria analysis with the purpose of its implementation in railway investment projects concerning rehabilitation interventions. In this sense, its importance and potential will be highlighted for several stakeholders in the decision-making process, as well as the objectives and criteria definition for a practical implementation.

Integrated Approach as a Means of Leading the Degraded Post-Industrial Areas Out of Crisis - A Case Study of Lodz

The article analyses the issue of modern development strategies in post-industrial areas. The issue concerns many regions in Europe and is one of the fundamental challenges of urban policy. The aim of the study is to define the methods of achieving lasting changes in the quality of life in the degenerated areas of post-industrial cities. If projects in the spatial, cultural, economic and social sphere are carried out simultaneously, they produce long-term effects. Projects in the spatial, cultural, economic and social sphere carried out simultaneously produce long-term effects. In this context, projects improving the accessibility of the area, making use of its cultural heritage, which naturally includes architectural elements that create the identity of the city, as well as activities aimed at an economic recovery, are absolutely vital. Another key element is changing the city image, both in the eyes of the residents as well as outsiders. The study analyses approaches adopted by the urban policy of Lodz, a city which has received the largest EU funding for urban renewal in Poland. The article presents new legal mechanisms introduced by the Urban Renewal Act to the Polish legal system. The redevelopment of the city’s transport network, renovation of historic urban tissue, improving civil engineering infrastructure and quality of public spaces are all part of the projects implemented in Lodz. Moreover, a proposal to locate a cultural event of international importance in the heart of the city centre has been put forward. Lodz as the only European city applied to organize EXPO 2022. The exhibition area is located in the immediate vicinity of the newly built multimodal railway station, the biggest railway investment in the country in the recent years. These projects will improve city image, enhance economic recovery and raise the quality of life in the city centre. A consistent implementation of the development strategy, despite the centralization of projects in the city centre, will also have a positive impact on smaller urban settlements in the agglomeration, leading to sustainable development of the metropolis

RAILROAD INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENTS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN THE ANTEBELLUM UNITED STATES

1. introductionRailroads played a major role in the development of the antebellum United States. The availability of an expanding railroad infrastructure revolutionized the dynamics of the US economy, shattering traditional time and space barriers. Transportation of people and goods became faster, more reliable, safer, and hence more economical. For some time economists and historians have tried to specify and carefully measure these impacts (for recent contributions see, for example, Rousseau and Sylla, 2005; Atack et al., 2008; Atack and Margo, 2011; Donaldson and Hornbeck, 2013; Atack et al., 2014a, 2014b).1 And yet, several important questions remain unanswered. First, what was the overall impact of railroad investment on economic development in this period? Second what was the impact of railroad investment in this period on public state budgets?At the most fundamental level, there is the question of causality. It is often implicitly assumed in measuring the effects of railroad investments that they led to economic development. Yet, the possibility of feedback effects from economic conditions to railroad investment is ignored. But there exists evidence for such effects. Fishlow (1965) tested Schumpeter's hypothesis of construction ahead of demand and finds that railroads tended to be built incrementally into areas that already had been settled (see Fogel, 1979). Atack et al. (2010) further reinforce this conclusion in their analysis of investment, population density, and urbanization patterns between 1850 and 1860.It is indeed likely, given the high internal rates of return reported for railroad investment and the participation of the public sector in this endeavor, that patterns of railroad investment may have been responsive to economic conditions. Expansionary economic conditions increase the availability of private capital and, by expanding tax bases, increase the capacity for the public sector to provide support for railroad construction. In addition, the expansion of the network may have been designed to serve the needs of regions where migration and subsequent growth in activity manifested sufficient demand for these transportation services to justify their construction. These concerns support the need to accommodate the possibility of reverse causality between economic development and railroad investment when measuring the effects of railroad construction on economic development.In a more general vein, the heart of the social savings approach traditionally used to measure the economic effects of railroad investment (see Fogel (1964) and Fishlow (1965) for the seminal contributions), rests on the idea that lower transportation costs are the central component of the effects of railroads on economic development. A key criticism of this approach is that it is equipped to measure only these direct gains and not any indirect benefits stemming from demand side effects (see, for example, Leunig, 2010).Indeed, railroad investment should be expected to have two fundamentally different types of contributions to economic development. First, the construction of the rail lines required the allocation of resources which may stimulate demand. This stems from the purchase of raw materials that supported the iron foundries, rolling mills and machine shops that prepared iron and other metals required to furnish the rails, spikes, sills, frogs, levers and switches needed to lay track. In addition, the employment of labor in the construction of the railroad and subsequent spending induced by payments to workers may contribute to greater levels of output. Over the long run, however, the importance of the railroad in accessing regions distant from waterways and the network spillover effects induced by their presence are an important driver in the positive impact of railroad investment on economic growth and in lowering transportation costs. There is scant evidence on how the effects of railroad investment may be decomposed between short-term - demand side effects - and long term - supply side effects (see, for example, Berger and Enflo, 2014). …

One Belt, One Road (Obor) and Malaysia: A Long-Term Geopolitical Perspective

The Chinese Government has embarked on a new strategy, known as “One Belt, One Road” or OBOR. This paper concentrates on the maritime part of this development policy, which entails heavy infrastructure investments in ports and railroads, but also property developments like satellite cities or condominiums, offered for sale mainly to Chinese citizens. There will be obvious commercial benefits to economies along the Southern Silk Road, but also geo-political effects like increasing political dependency due to Chinese capital investments and acquisition of property rights in ports and condominiums. Regarding these developments, a Malaysian maritime policy is called for to match OBOR and the Indonesian Maritime Fulcrum, as well as ASEAN integration.

Exploring the Influence of Colonial Railways on Javaas Economic Geography

This study explores the impact on Java’s economic geography of railways built by the Dutch colonial government. Pre-1940 Dutch railway construction affords an historical experiment on the spatial distribution of economic activities across urban Java both before and after 1940. Using city data for over 100 years, the study finds that the railways had a short-term impact on the distribution of population, but that in the long run colonial railway investment lost its advantages. Until 1930, the railways substituted for the Great Mail Road. Between 1930 and 2010, however, the Great Mail Road regained an earlier importance in shaping urban Javanese patterns. The study also draws important lessons for recent Indonesian infrastructure development in Indonesia, notably in regard to the railway system itself.

Selecting Railway Investments in 1890s America

ABSTRACTThe purpose of financial reporting is to provide information to investors and creditors to help them make rational decisions (Financial Accounting Standards Board [FASB] 2010). Tracing the development of investors' methods should help with understanding the role of financial accounting. This study examines investment practices involving railways in 1890s America. As such, it furthers our knowledge about the development of investment methods and their necessary information. Moreover, it shows that as investment methods grew in sophistication, there was an enhanced demand for greater comparability in accounting data to make meaningful analyses. Competing investment strategies, largely devoid of accounting information, are also discussed.

Is road infrastructure investment in China excessive? Evidence from productivity of firms

China's road investment boom since 1990 has often been criticized as excessive. In this paper, we estimate the return to road investment in China due to manufacturing firms’ increased productivity between 1998 and 2007. To address endogeneity in road investment, we estimate the differential impact of road investment on firms with heterogeneous reliance on transport. Although some investment may be inefficient, our finding does not support the claim that road investment in China is excessive overall. The annual rate of return from productivity gains alone amounts to approximately 11%, partly due to positive spatial spillover. We find little return to road investment in inland China around 2000, but this has significantly improved since the mid-2000s. Our findings are robust to controlling for road quality, railroad investment, and variant markups of firms due to market demand and price shocks.

Procurement of Railway Infrastructure Projects – A European Benchmarking Study

This benchmarking study compares how railway investments are procured in five European countries: Sweden, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK. In total, 19 procurement managers and project managers were interviewed. This study compares the national rail clients’ procurement strategies regarding: delivery system, reward system, contractor selection, and collaboration model. Historically, these clients have used in-house production. The first step towards a gradually increased usage of the market was to outsource the construction activities while keeping the design and development competence in-house. All five countries have mainly used Design-Bid-Build contracts in their initial outsourcing. However, the last few years there is a discernible trend in Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and the UK towards allocating more design and development responsibilities to contractors (i.e. Design-Build contracts) and increasing the strategic focus on cooperation. The UK and the Netherlands are forerunners in this trend that can be viewed as a third step in the transition towards a market oriented railway sector. Norway and Sweden is in the middle of this transition, whereas Germany has not initiated this change. The transition towards a gradually increased usage of the market has two main dimensions; degree of cooperation and degree of contractor freedom, which differs among the countries. The UK and Sweden focus on increasing both these dimensions, while The Netherlands and Norway mostly focus on increasing the degree of contractor freedom. Germany still limits both dimensions by performing design and development in-house and letting contractors compete for construction work in Design-Bid-Build contracts. Due to historical and cultural reasons, Deutsche Bahn in Germany is very hesitant to engage in collaboration with external suppliers; focusing on competition is considered more appropriate and less controversial.

The Comparison of Basic Transportation Infrastructure and Freight Villages’ Locations between Germany and Turkey

In general manner; Turkey and Germany are quite unlike countries in terms of transportation infrastructure and logitics facilities. Many reasons, most of them ground historical reasons, could be regarded such as; geographical location, industrial history, economic. For whatever reason might be; in today?s context the world witness the highest logistics performans index score in Germany and an aggressively developing country in Turkey. As Europe's largest economy and second most populous nation, Germany leads in developing logistics strategies and services as a key member of the continent's economic and political structure. On the other hand, Turkey has got a real strategic location between the continents but traditionally has problems with transportation mode distribution and interconnectivity of systems that prevent Turkey to undertake the 'hub' role for its region and achieve economic benefit. The efficient mobility of people and freight is a prerequisite for modern economic success. Due to increasing globalization, transportation of freight and logistics play an ever important role in a country's ability to compete in the global market. Global supply chains require a large number of high-performing physical interfaces, such as container terminals, seaports and/or freight villages, to establish a perfect material flow along the entire world. From this point of view; Germany is chosen as the best perfomed country all over the world. Likewise, Turkey needs a kind of a 'benchmarking' in order to overcome transportation and logistics infrastructural and strategic problems. The aim of this paper is to focus on the successful strategic location desicion of freight villages and transportation mode distribution of Germany. In accordance with this purpose, first section of this paper is substantially based on secondary data gathered from a wide variety of sources including Turkish/German Statistical Institutes, Ministries of Transportation, Maritime Affairs and Communication and NGO's of the sector besides European Commision Statistical Office (eurostat) and academic studies. Data gathered is used to point the current transport indicators of Turkey with respect to Germany. Afterwards analyzing the primary transportation and logistics index, the mind behind transportation organisation is presented. Finally; the lessons to be taken for Turkey is presented and future policy in transportation and logistics are guided. The results regarding with the transportation modes indicate that, the finest detail is hidden behind the railway investments and its connections within other transportation modes for Turkey. In a similar manner, Germany's logistics workforce and infrastructure is geographically concentrated along the Rhineland, through the industrial heartland of the Ruhr. But in Turkey, unbalanced regional development force country to polarised development around Marmara Region.

Railway investment in Uruguay before 1914: profitability, subsidies, and economic impact

Railways were an important factor in the expansion of Latin American economies in the late-nineteenth century. Due to their potential impact, governments often promoted railway construction through subsidies. The Uruguayan state offered profit guarantees to foreign railway companies and was able to attract massive investment in the railway sector. This paper asks the question of whether these railway guarantees were efficient, and estimates subsidized and unsubsidized private returns, as well as the social returns, of the Uruguayan railway network from 1869 to 1913. The results show that subsidies more than doubled profitability, but did not compensate the opportunity cost of capital. Social returns were low relative to railways in other regions, and benefits created by new investment in each year did not justify subsidies. However, average social returns were higher than the likely returns for alternative investments and the distribution of these returns was not unfavorable to the consumers of railway services.

Conceptual design of high-speed semi-low-floor bogie for train-tram

Train-tram railway vehicles implement the connection between urban tramlines and the surrounding railway network. Train-tram railway vehicles, which use existing infrastructure, can help to avoid large investments in new railways or tramlines and make interchanges between city center and surrounding cities unnecessary. However, present train-tram rail vehicle cannot carry out the integration of operating by means of high speed in intercity railways with operating on small radius of curvature in inner city tramlines. This paper aims to develop a new model for solid wheelsets train-tram railway vehicles, which will not only pass the curve of 25mR radius of curvature traveling on inner city tramlines with the speed of 18 km/h, but also can travel on straight railway with 200 km/h high speed between intercity. In this paper, a new train-tram model, including five car-body and five motor bogies with ten traction motors, is addressed. Expect as a real rail vehicle testing, this study prefer virtual simulation, which is an effective way to show the rail vehicle performance, such as ride stability, ride comfort and ride safety, by means of evaluating the dynamic characteristics of rail vehicle. Moreover, Design of Experiment (DOE) method is used to optimize solid wheelsets bogie system on improving passenger comfort, safety and stability of train-tram. Parameters of components of bogie system are tuned to minimize the derailment coefficient and the ride comfort index. The results shows that the best comfort index for passenger and minimum derailment coefficient are found. The results also show that this optimized new train-tram model is reliable and practical enough to be applied on real rail vehicle design.

Risk analysis model for regional railroad investment

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to model risks in financial analysis. These risks associated with uncertainties in the projects should be properly addressed to ensure proper decision regarding the projects. Performance indicators should be developed and assessing risks has high priority. All these activities comprise appraisal, and based on these, a proper course of action should be recommended.Design/methodology/approachTo analyze the attractiveness of a project for foreign regional railroad investment or participation, the project should be analyzed in a systematic way. First, the project’s goals and objectives should be evaluated for compatibility. Also, criteria of acceptability for stakeholders should be checked against output from the project. Usually, a project can have many alternatives, and impacts of each alternative should be analyzed in terms of quantitative and qualitative forecasts of impacts. Benefits and costs need to be counted in proper units of measurement per goals and objectives.FindingsThis paper shows that risk modeling can reflect uncertainty in decision-making and provide robustness of modeling process and improved communication. Also, challenges are presented in using risk analysis.Originality/valueTo overcome the shortcomings of traditional mathematical optimization model in identifying best sets of projects for private application, the proposed model finds ways to incorporate risk management components for the optimization procedure. Based on simulation results, a brute force solution procedure using enumeration can be used. Another approach is recommended to use the genetic algorithm process to reduce the number of alternatives to search to reach an optimal solution.

토지피복지도를 활용한 철도개발지의 민감도 분석

최근 한반도 생태축의 근간을 이루는 백두대간의 중심에 위치한 추풍령 생태축 연결 복원사업이 추진되고 있으며, 이 지역은 일제 강점기에 경부선 철도건설과 함께 산업화 과정에서 도로와 철도 건설 등에 의해 야생동물의 이동이 단절되어 로드킬의 주요 원인이 되어 온 것으로 지적되었다. 그러나 친환경적 교통수단인 철도에 대한 투자 비중이 증가하는 추세를 보이고 있으며, 현재 기존 선로의 고속화를 위한 단선철도의 복선전철화 및 선형개량 사업 등 전국 철도망이 지속적으로 확대되고 있다. 이에 따라 본 연구는 급증하는 철도노선 연장에 따른 국토공간의 생태적 취약성을 평가하는 주요 평가기준으로 토지이용을 검토할 것을 제안하였고, 환경부에서 제공하는 토지피복지도를 활용하여 철도노선과 중첩분석을 수행하였다. 그 결과 논, 밭, 활엽수림, 나지, 내륙수 등 5개 항목에 민감도가 높은 것으로 나타났다. 이러한 항목들에는 민감도에 따른 가중치 설정이 필요한 것으로 생각되며 이를 바탕으로 구체적인 평가 기준을 마련할 필요가 있다. Recently, the 'Ecological Network Restoration Project at Chupungnyeong' has been placed; this project is located at the center of the Baekdu mountain spine, the core of the ecological network of the Korean Peninsula. In the process of industrialization since the early 1900s, this area has been under railroad and road construction; as such, wildlife movements have been interrupted and many cases of road-kill have been found. The investment in railroads has increased because railroads are an environmentally sound means of transportation. Single track railways have been converted to double track electric railways and track reforming projects are underway in order to speed up the current railway system. This study suggests to take land use as a standard for assessing the ecological weaknesses of the domestic geo-spaces that are to be affected by rapid extension of railway lines. The land cover map issued by the Ministry of Environment was overlapped with the Korean Railway Line Map for analysis. The results showed that five items were high in sensitivity: paddy fields, fields, deciduous forests, bare land, and inland waters. It seems to be necessary to set weights for highly sensitive land use types; also, specific evaluation criteria need to be reestablished.

The Effects of Railway Investments in a Polycentric City

This paper analyses the effect of railway investment on land prices and land use in a polycentric city under various regulatory regimes of land markets. The introduction of a faster mode of transport (train), accessible in discrete locations leads to an extended city size. The stations of the mode attract dense residential settlements. As a result, the average residential and commercial land rents increase in both the competitive and segmented land market situations, as compared with the slow unimodal transport case. When rail investments only serve one particular centre, this leads to the growth of the advantaged centre at the expense of the other centre. Generally speaking, investment in the fast mode results in city growth and increase in rent receipts. However the effect of the investment for individual centres and their corresponding residential areas depends on the underlying land market assumptions and the level of investment. Distorted land markets lead to increases in commercial rents, but this is more than off-set by the decrease in residential land rent.

Re-analyse the Early Stage American Railway Investment System from the Land Use and Privatization Double-guided Perspective: the Drawbacks and warnings

Abstract The Chinese railway infrastructure investment has come to a new developing phase with the feature of privatization and land double-oriented. Most domestic literatures recommend the experiences of the “private investment & land grant” model of American railway investment system. However, the growth trajectory of private capital and land system in china are considerably different from that of the United States. The paper reveals the role of the various stakeholders in the railway development, re-analyzing the drawbacks of American railroads development model and proposing the warnings to policy options of the current and future Chinese Railway development.

The use of conjoint method for assessing the relevance of railway investments

The article deals with designing and testing the use of conjoint analysis method, as one of the tool that provides...

Strategy for China Intercity-railway Operation Management Model Based on Varied Investors

Abstract Looking back in history, Chinese railway construction has an obvious feature with governmental action. Nowadays, lack of funds will be a bottleneck for China's large-scale and regional intercity railway projects proposed. It is absolutely imperative to reform the existing Chinese railway investment and financing system for attracting more private investors from various sections of society to participate in the construction of the railway projects. In this paper, how to adjust the model of exclusive operation management to adapt to the reformation is studied. In this paper, three types of the model frame structure are proposed and there are several issues are studied for these models, including comparison of the advantages and disadvantages between them, design of working procedures of them, description of applicable conditions of them respectively. Based on the analysis and summary of the experiences and lessons of railway varied investment and operation-management reform at home and abroad, it is recommended in this paper that priority strategy should be given to the entrustment model of railway operation-management for a project supported by varied investors under the surroundings of China socialist market system.