IF articles

Summary - An appropriate access charges regime represents the basis for guaranteeing fair competition in the rail sector. In accordance with the recent European and national legislations, the Italian rail infrastructure manager has lately presented a new charges scheme with a better cost orientation and deeper market segmentation based on the ability to pay. This contribution describes and compares in detail the new and the previous regimes, presenting an empirical case study on two selected Italian corridors (Milano- Bologna and Bologna-Ancona). For each OD (Origin – Destination) couple, several parameters have been defined and evaluated (with both the regimes, whether relevant). According to the particular scenario, such parameters have been selected as inputs or outputs in order to rank, by means of a decision support method (DEA - Data Envelopment Analisys), the efficiency of the rail segments taking into account the points of view of the different stakeholders, such as Infrastructure Management (IM), Railway Operators (ROs) and Transport Regulator.
In general, the outcomes show variability across scenarios and access charge schemes. In particular, based on how the scenarios were set, the results show that HS services beter respond to the needs of IM or Rail Regulator while, especially with the new charges scheme, the considered ROs per- spective ranks better short connections by regional trains. Such kind of analysis could help competition and regulatory authorities or railway stakeholders to identify where and how benefits could be gained or lost and by whom.