Der Schienenverkehr in Deutschland fährt bereits heute zu einem Großteil elektrisch (~90% der Verkehrsleistung auf ~60% elektrifizierten Strecken). Für eine vollständige Defossilisierung sind jedoch auch für die verbliebenen 10% Fahrleistung Lösungen von Nöten. Aufgrund der lokalen...

Die neue Bundesregierung hält an dem verkehrspolitischen Ziel einer Steigerung des Verkehrs auf der Schiene fest. Dazu sieht sie im Koalitionsvertrag neben einer weiteren Erhöhung der Investitionen in die Schieneninfrastruktur auch eine prioritäre Ausrichtung der Finanzierung auf den...

Railways are a key infrastructure that facilitates trade and regional integration with potential consequences on local development and the environment in hitherto backward regions. In this article, we study the medium- to long-term socio-economic and environmental infrastructure impacts for the...

This report explores two aspects of the rail transport sector - mobility, and employment--in the countries of Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina from a gender perspective. It examines issues of rail transport for women both as passengers, and as sector employees. It highlights the urgency of...

Competitive passenger rail can help workers access new or better jobs. This paper studies the wider economic impacts on local unemployment of the liberalized passenger rail between Ostrava, the third-biggest city in the Czech Republic, and Prague, its capital. The local impacts are estimated at...

The socioeconomic wellbeing of urban areas depends on a well-functioning transportation system that makes it easier for people to access goods and services. Whereas most urban areas in emerging economies are expanding in size and human population, high motorisation and inadequate public...

Ireland developed one of the world's most intensive railroad networks in the second half of the 19th century. However, the emergence of railroads occurred in tandem with a failure to industrialize and mass depopulation suggesting limited, if any, impact on the island's economy. This paper...

Im Zuge der politisch und gesellschaftlich propagierten "Verkehrs- und Klimawende" wird der Stärkung des Schienenverkehrs in Deutschland eine zunehmend wichtigere Rolle beigemessen. Mit der Coronakrise ist die Klimadebatte zwar zwischenzeitlich etwas aus den Schlagzeilen verschwunden; es ist...

China’s Belt and Road Initiative was introduced in 2013 to revitalise the Silk Road and promote economic development and integration. This paper investigates the economic effects of the opening of the only high-speed rail (HSR) line in northwest China which connects China’s northwestern...

Track access charges are the main driver of infrastructure costs for rail operators in the rail transport sector, accounting for up to 88 percent of costs. This paper analyzes track access charges of 28 EU countries with the respective trajectories of the company forms employing panel...

The article presents the importance of a specific rail transport system in the logistics service of cargo transported between two generators of international trade in goods -China and the European Union. Using selected operational data relating to the railway systems of several countries...

Georgia's railway network is a key segment of the TRACECA, the shortest route from the Caspian Sea and Central Asia to the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Basin. Georgian Railway Corridor has a number of advantages over pipeline, alternative railways and auto transport. Changing the quality of...

As a middle-income country, Kenya is moving beyond the world of foreign aid. China Eximbank operates like a commercial bank. Understanding this world requires new tools and language. Chinese loan contracts allow disclosure when required by borrowers’ laws. Kenya's Constitution is ambiguous on...

As a green mode of transportation, railways have an important role to play in decarbonizing transport through shifting transport from more polluting modes of transport such as road and air. Railways can enable economic growth, which in turn generates increasing transport demand, while keeping...

This report explores two aspects of the rail transport sector - mobility, and employment--in the countries of Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina from a gender perspective. It examines issues of rail transport for women both as passengers, and as sector employees. It highlights the urgency of...

This article documents the impact of the Brazilian railway network on structural transformation between the late nineteenth and middle twentieth century. We exploit variation induced by geographic location, where municipalities near the least-cost routes were more likely to be connected to...

This paper examines whether increased market access driven by railroad network expansions had long-run effects on those living in affected areas during their early life. I make use of linked complete count U.S. Censuses to follow individuals who were children in 1900 and trace through short-run...

Extreme meteorological events such as floods, droughts, heatwaves, and storms cause significant damage to infrastructures across the world. These events can damage expensive infrastructural assets, but can also incur a high societal cost when disrupting the transportation of people, goods, and...

Landslides are a major cause for losses and damages in railways and roadways which cross hilly regions. Some landslides may cause traffic interruption for several days, leading to severe prejudice to cargo flow in busy transportation systems, until an emergency correction can be built. Landslide...

The 1860s witnessed Britain's third, and last, large railway mania. Although it added about as much mileage to the rail network as the great Railway Mania of the 1840s, little is known about it in modern literature. This paper documents how this mania managed to delude investors into pouring...

During the post-recession period, rental prices have seemingly outpaced the average market in transit-oriented developments (TOD), characterized by walkable, transit-accessible, compact, and mixed-use neighborhoods. This study examined rent growth in station areas, including TODs after the Great...

In 2017, the German federal government passed the Railroad Noise Protection Act to reduce the noise emitted by freight trains. This paper evaluates the effects of this law on house prices by using regional variation comparing affected homes close to train tracks and homes in greater distance...

The role of network in transportation systems has gained significant and increasing relevance in the literature especially focusing on vulnerability and resilience.The structure of a transport system can positively or negatively influence the geographical areas it serves. A disruption of the...

Climate change affects most sectors of society due to changes in temperature and precipitation patterns and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future. Extreme weather events are already more frequent and intense, generating additional costs for businesses and investors nationally and...

Railways support green development. Governments in developing countries seek to provide transport infrastructure and services to enable inclusive economic development. Transport decarbonization is critical for mitigating climate change through near-term actions and long-term transitions....

We propose a new mixed integer programming based heuristic for computing new benchmark primal solutions for instances of the PESPlib. The PESPlib is a collection of instances for the Periodic Event Scheduling Problem (PESP), comprising periodic timetabling problems inspired by real-world railway...

In December 2018, a leaked letter from Kenya's Auditor General warned that the Kenya Ports Authority's assets - of which Mombasa Port is the most valuable - risked being taken over by China Eximbank if Kenya defaulted on the Standard Gauge Railway loans. The rumor that Kenya had used Mombasa...

This lecture, delivered at the Higher School of Economics in 2020, opens with a discussion of the modern history of economists' treatment of network industries: from cost-of-service regulation through incentive regulation to vertical restructuring. This history is then applied to the freight...

Firms devote significant resources to safety-training programs with the aim to mitigate financial loss due to safety incidents and create customer value. From both practical and theoretical perspectives, it is important to know (1) whether safety-training programs mitigate financial loss, so...

In 2013, China launched its ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ (BRI) as a major effort to enhance international trade and economic development. An important feature of the BRI is that it supports free trade regimes and a world economy based upon open regional cooperation. The concept of BRI involves...

Die Eisenbahninfrastruktur des DB Konzerns wird seit der Bahnreform 1994 zusammen mit den Eisenbahnverkehrsunternehmen in einer vertikal integrierten Konzernstruktur organisiert. Diese Konzernstruktur steht jedoch im Verdacht, Wettbewerbsverzerrungen auf der Ebene der...