Global Trend to Railway Concessions Delivering Positive Results
The authors review a number of recent innovative rail concessions. Each country has approached its problems differently, and each provides different insights into what can be achieved with concessions. But all the cases show that restructuring and...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Viewpoint |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/1997/12/441722/global-trend-railway-concessions-delivering-positive-results http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11563 |
| Summary: | The authors review a number of recent
innovative rail concessions. Each country has approached its
problems differently, and each provides different insights
into what can be achieved with concessions. But all the
cases show that restructuring and substantial government
investment in the design of a concession pay off.
Concessionaires can do exactly what is expected-increase
traffic, improve service, and enhance labor and asset
efficiency if they are allowed to do so. A growing number of
companies and consortiums are interested in investing in
railway concessions if the concessions are offered on
reasonable terms. And because both "positive"
(where the concessionaire pays the government an agreed sum
for the concession rights) and "negative" (where
the government pays the concessionaire to operate and
maintain the property) concessions are possible, loss-making
but socially necessary services can also be concessioned.
Perhaps the most important innovation in railway
organization over the next few decades will be in the
European Union. Regulatory changes have ignited a clear
trend in the EU toward institutional separation of
infrastructure from operations because infrastructure is
seen as a state responsibility while operations (except for
social services) are seen as commercial. One eventual result
of institutional separation will be franchising or even
privatization of most freight services and possibly
intercity passenger services. |
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