Diss. Stockholm : Royal Institute of Technology, KTH. Division for Transportation and Logistics, 2009

Europe’s railways are at present undergoing far-reaching changes. The restructuring takes different forms in different countries and the pace also varies. One common denominator, however, is the growing influence of market forces on development, principally of freight traffic, in almost the whole of Europe. Freight traffic, as opposed to a large proportion of passenger traffic, is operated – and forced to maintain its position – under commercial conditions. The restructuring also affects the cost structure and – which is important in connection with the present thesis – how this can be illustrated in a cost model for rail freight traffic. The above means that costs and revenues, and the relationship between the two, are two key aspects that ultimately determine the railway’s future position in the freight transport market. Knowledge in these areas is therefore important, partly for the railway companies themselves, but also for other parties in the sector who are in some way affected by, and/or take decisions that have relevance for freight traffic. These might for example be transportation customers, infrastructure operators, politicians and researchers. This project focuses on the cost side, where knowledge is today inadequate, not least outside of the railway companies. A cost model that illustrates the railway’s many and rather complex production systems would thus satisfy many different players’ need for cost information. The aim of this project was to develop such a model and use it in selected case studies to analyse the cost structure and the effect of changes in the railway system, thus increasing understanding of what factors are the cost-drivers in the railway system. The cost model has been delimited to constitute a business economics model from a train operator’s perspective. External costs are thus not calculated. The model calculates transportation costs at the flow level. By being able to handle several flows, the model also makes it possible to calculate costs for larger transport systems, in which cases thedelimitation of such a system may vary depending on the user of theinformation (for example train operator, transportation customer, etc).Detailed information on all these flows is, however, a requirement. The model was developed with a view to being able to illustrate different production methods. It is thus not limited to a certain kind of traffic or production arrangement. This means that the model in this sense is a general one, which also opens up for using the model to evaluate new production methods. The model also provides a basis for calculating transportation prices; the costs, however, are only one (albeit important) factor in pricing transportation. The other important factor is the market price, which is determined by the competitive situation. It is, however, reasonable to assume that in a longer perspective there is a strong linkage between transportation prices and transportation costs. By setting a profit margin, based on an assessment of the competitive situation, a user of the model can thus also calculate a transportation price. The project was conducted in six steps: 1) Literature analysis 2) Mapping of production systems in rail freight traffic 3) Identification of activities, resources and costs 4) Definition of cost allocation principles for shared costs 5) Construction and programming of the model 6) Validation and calibration of the model The literature review showed that few detailed transportation