Transport research has deserved increasing attention in recent years, both at national and European levels, particularly as regards the formulation, design and assessment of transport policies.
The ever-increasing mobility, the acute unbalance and inadequacies perceived in current transportation systems or the consolidation of the sustainability paradigm are unparalleled challenges for the research community, which strains to put in place comprehensive methodologies and tools able to guide strategic decisions and investments in the sector. Additionally, the growing importance of supranational political actors has enlarged the scope and consequences of political decisions related to transport, leading to higher levels of interaction and complexity. This new dimension of the policy setting activity has expanded both the scale and relevance of the defy, driving attention on concepts and issues previously neglected.
In practical terms, the research on transport policy seeks to develop and solve problems that are adequately motivated to deal with important aspects of the design, analysis and assessment of policies related to transportation systems. To address them, researchers are confronted to pronouncedly interdependent political, societal, environmental, economic and technical features, which have favored the increasing adoption of multidisciplinary approaches.
The main objective stated for this dissertation, the design of a transferability assessment framework in the field of railway infrastructure charging, may be certainly included within the transport policy research field, of which it shares the main characteristics.
First, this research is aimed at developing methodologies with a final impact on transport policies. Second, it is focused on the notion of transferability, probably one of the more promising concepts for the handling of the recently acquired supranational dimension. Third, it is confronted with the complexity of decision-making in different political settings. Fourth, it involves both political and economic considerations. Finally, it requires the adoption of a multidisciplinary approach able to bridge the gap between different backgrounds and levels of analysis.
On a more practical ground, the nature of the selected objective conditions the methodological approach followed in this thesis.
The formulation of a conceptual framework, an intermediate stage between the basic theoretical developments and the design of specific models suitable to support decisions in the real world, defines a particular relation between the methodological approach and both aspects, theoretical knowledge and real practice. In fact, the framework will be successful only in the measure in which it will be able to link theory to practice, providing an adequate support to more detailed developments.
In this research, the theory is represented by the concepts and methodological procedures defined by other scientific disciplines that have already studied transfer processes but fall outside the domain of transport research. The practice is the specific information available on the reality of railway infrastructure charges levied in a number of networks, as well as the considerations and procedures effectively taken into account to design and implement them.
Accordingly, the methodology adopted has defined as a priority the conciliation of the theoretical and practical dimensions of the framework. To ensure the achievement of this goal, a top-down procedure involving two steps has been selected. The first step builds on the theoretical knowledge available on policy transfer to propose a general framework for the assessment of transferability and then contrasts it with the practical knowledge available on railway infrastructure charging. The result of this phase is a framework particularized for the assessment of transferability. The second step challenges the particular framework through the development of specific case studies rooted in the information accessible on the real world practice. This way of proceeding enables a double interaction between “theory” and “practice”, ensuring a high degree of consistency for the framework proposed.
Moreover, the interaction achieved in every step provides different inputs to the framework definition process. The first step is aimed at adapting the theoretical concepts found in the literature to the specific considerations of railway infrastructure charging. It allows as well to complement the existing theoretical background through the formulation of new concepts and procedures able to improve the framework. The second step is directed at refining the methodology proposed, through the adjustment of some of its elements. It is also used to identify the validity of the framework, eventually pointing out its limitations as observed through the case studies.
The overall procedure reproduces the scientific approach, as far as it tests the methodological hypotheses formulated (theoretical considerations) against the conditions prevailing in the real world (information available on real practice). In this
research, as it is characteristic in the domain of transport policy, the verification relies on the development of case studies.
Case studies are based on the collection and presentation of detailed information about particular entities or situations. They are developed according to mixed methodologies, including both quantitative and qualitative aspects, as the more effective way to provide a wide perspective on reality, including the presence of uncontrolled elements. Each case study looks intensely at the individual case, drawing conclusions only about that particular entity or situation and in that specific context. Its objective is not to provide universal and generalizable truth, but to partially test the framework proposed. The overall degree of validation will depend on the number and selection of case studies.
The selection and definition of case studies in this thesis presents some particularities as a consequence of its interest in transfer procedures. Indeed, the consulted literature on railway infrastructure charging does not provide any documented case of transfer of policies or practices between different railway administrations. Thus, the research has been forced to build its own case studies on the information available on national practices. First, importer and exporter jurisdictions have been selected and characterized.
Then, the case studies have been defined as the transfer of a pricing policy or practice between an importer and an exporter jurisdiction.
Though the characteristics of the practice and the jurisdictions have been described with recourse to detailed information on reality, the transfers represented in the case studies have never occurred in practice. This fact has forced a double analysis of the transfer represented in each case: a first analysis studies the transfer between both jurisdictions without any formal constraint, while the second applies the framework proposed. The comparison of both approaches is used to explore the eventual limitations of the framework.
The selection of case studies in this research has been performed with the aim of obtaining an adequate representation of the current railway infrastructure pricing policies and practices in the European railway sector and being realistic as regards the eventuality of transfers in the European scene (through the selection of the importer and exporter jurisdictions). Furthermore, the formulation of case studies has sought to reflect the different levels of analysis proposed in the framework (through the selection of the policies and practices being transferred).
The final and partial objectives proposed for this research, as well as the methodological considerations exposed so far, have been reflected in the work structure adopted (Fig. 2).
The structure is made of a main work stream reproducing the top-down approach from the more general levels (close to theory) to the more particularized (close to the practice
of rail infrastructure charging) and two secondary streams, designed to provide the
“reality inputs” required by the two-step procedure.
Fig. 2: Work structure followed in this research
Note: The color code refers to the fulfilment of the partial objectives indicated in section 1.2: Green – To explore and review the transferability as developed in other disciplines; Purple – To formulate a theoretical framework for the assessment of transferability in the field of railway infrastructure charging;
Yellow – To identify and characterize the more relevant economic and political aspects intervening in the formulation of charges for the use of railway infrastructure; Blue – To develop a set of case studies.
Source: own elaboration
The main stream is formed by the tasks Review of the transferability notion, Proposition of a general framework, Particularization of the general framework for the field of railway infrastructure charging and Discussion of the particular framework. The first of the secondary streams includes the tasks Review of economic and political aspects of infrastructure charging and Characterization of railway infrastructure charging. It facilitates the basic input for the particularization of the framework, closing the first interaction between theory and practice. The other secondary stream gathers the tasks Characterization of EU railway infrastructure charging, Selection and characterization of case studies and Development of case studies. It provides the second interaction between theory and reality, exploring the limits of the proposed framework. Every stream is linked as well to the fulfillment of the partial objectives set for this research.
This fact has been highlighted in Fig. 2 through the color code used to depict each task.
Characterization of
The more remarkable methodological characteristics of the tasks developed in this research are referred next:
• Review of the transferability notion – the review has been performed on the literature produced by the comparative politics and the management science. The main source of information at this stage has been handbooks, reports from supranational organizations (UN, OECD, EC) and scientific publications (e.g.
Journal of European Public Policy, Governance, Political Studies, Public Administration Review, The Review of Policy Research, ASQC Quality Press, Benchmarking: An International Journal, International Journal of Public Sector Management, etc.). The information gathered has been processed and presented according to two different analyses: an “horizontal analysis” dedicated to the concept definition and a “vertical analysis” dedicated to the concept implementation.
• Proposition of a general framework – the proposition of the general framework has formulated the basic methodology to assess the transferability of policies and/or practices between different jurisdictions. Previously to its formulation, this task has clarified the basic hypotheses and assumptions done on the basis of the review of the transfer concept. These assumptions basically regard the conceptualization of the policy definition process and the conceptualization of the transfer process.
• Review of economic and political aspects of infrastructure charging – the review has been based on a number of research projects promoted by a wide range of institutions (World Bank, UN, ECMT, EC, UIC, EIM, CER, BTRE), complemented with handbooks, academic literature (Transport Policy, Utilities Policy, Journals of Industry, Competition and Trade, etc.) and a number of selected conferences and workshops (e.g. VATT -Helsinki, 2000; Rafael del Pino Foundation - Madrid, 2004; University of Bath 2004). Contrarily to the review of the transferability notion, this task has had an instrumental function and it is not reflected in a specific section in the document. Its outputs have been the basis for the development of the characterization of railway infrastructure charging.
• Characterization of railway infrastructure charging – the information gathered through the previous task “Review of economic and political aspects of railway infrastructure charging” has been analyzed and used to characterize the basic concepts and elements influencing the determination and implementation of railway infrastructure charges. The characterization has been performed
according to a top-down approach that goes from the structure of railway infrastructure markets to the operationalization of railway infrastructure charges.
• Particularization of the general framework – this task has merged the general framework with the characterization of railway infrastructure charging. The approach adopted has maintained the formal structure of the general framework and particularized each of its elements and criteria for the field of infrastructure charging.
• Characterization of EU railway infrastructure charging – this task has provided an overview of the EU railway reform and a synthetic description of the European practice as regards the concepts and elements pointed out in the task
“Characterization of railway infrastructure charging”. The documentation used in this task consisted of EU legislation and policy documents (EC Communications, White Papers, etc.), complemented by some research projects and statistics from international organizations (EC, ECMT, UIC) and sparse scientific contributions.
• Selection and characterization of case studies – in order to reflect the more likely informational conditions at the time of undertaking a transferability assessment process, the importer jurisdiction selected for the six cases developed has been the Spanish railway network managed by ADIF. The exporter jurisdictions have been chosen according to a threefold criterion integrating maturity, market size and geographical proximity. The characterization of rail infrastructure pricing in the selected jurisdictions has been performed in the more accurate way as possible from the diversity of sources publicly available (network statements, financial annual reports of infrastructure managers and operators, national legislation, decisions from regulatory bodies, presentations at conferences and workshops, press releases, etc.). In every case, the thorough description of the national practice has been accompanied by a qualitative - quantitative analysis of the structure and levels of the charging scheme. The presentation of the information and analysis performed for every jurisdiction has been done according to a normalized structure so as to ease the development of the case studies.
• Development of case studies – each case study has been developed according to the same structure, providing first the description of the transfer and a set of preliminary considerations on its feasibility, and then the contents of the particular framework for the transferability assessment.
• Discussion of the particular framework – this task has discussed the validity of the particular framework proposed in the light of the conclusions obtained from
the six case studies developed. Its outcomes have been directly incorporated to the final conclusions of the thesis.