Evaluation of Rail Infrastructure Investments Related to the New Rail Regulatory Environment in Some Countries
As for any transportation infrastructure project, rail investment projects are subject to appraisals, which traditionally include an economic evaluation to determine public benefits and a financial analysis to determine the purely financial returns. When the company that owns and manages the rail infrastructure, termed the “infrastructure manager,” is legally different from the company that provides the rail service, appraisals are typically carried out separately for the infrastructure manager and the train operator. The appraisal process is different from the process when the same legal entity owns and manages both infrastructure and train operations. The distinction is especially pertinent for European Union member states. This study proposed a comprehensive methodology for rail investment project appraisal for the case of rail infrastructure and train operations that were owned and managed by separate legal entities. The study defined the socioeconomic viability of a project from the infrastructure manager's perspective, which reflected social welfare, as well as the financial viability of the project from the perspectives of the infrastructure manager and the operator. It was recognized that a project would proceed only if the socioeconomic evaluation were positive. In the case of a negative financial appraisal, which was often the case for low-volume rail links, the study demonstrated how the use of subsidies could render the rail investment financially viable. The methodology was applied for a proposed investment in the western extensions of the railway network of Greece project.
Cost-benefit analysis of investment in high-speed train system in Spain
This study compares the results of two political approaches to transport directed at the reduction of negative external effects. The comparison is between a policy of building a high-speed rail line to attract travelers away from highways and full social-cost pricing on all modes, that is, removing the implicit subsidies to all modes by pricing congestion and external costs. The former approach was adopted in 1992 in Spain with the introduction of the high-speed train in the Madrid-Seville corridor, bringing with it an important increase in the modal share of railway transport. From the analysis made, it can be concluded that from the point of view of economic efficiency and social benefit optimization, the high-speed train should not have been implemented that year (1992) in the Madrid-Seville corridor. Other transport policy approaches, such as the introduction of an optimal modal price based on the respective marginal social costs, would have increased social benefit. Therefore, the results obtained in...
UNIVERSAL LOCALLY COMPACT SCATTERED SPACES
If δ is an ordinal, we denote by C(δ) the class of all cardinal sequences of length δ of locally compact scattered (in short: LCS) spaces. If λ is an infinite cardinal, we write Cλ(δ) = {s ∈ C(δ) : s(0) = λ = min[s(ζ) : ζ < δ]}. An LCS space X is called Cλ(δ)-universal if SEQ(X) ∈ Cλ(δ), and for each sequence s ∈ Cλ(δ) there is an open subspace Y of X with SEQ(Y ) = s. We show that • there is a Cω(ω1)-universal LCS space, • under CH there is a Cω(δ)-universal LCS space for every ordinal δ < ω2, • under GCH for every infinite cardinal λ and every ordinal δ < ω2, there is a Cλ(δ)-universal LCS space, • there may exist a Cω(ω2)-universal LCS space. As a consequence, we obtain that it is consistent that 2 = ω2 and Cω(ω2) is large as possible, i.e. Cω(ω2) = {s ∈ 2{ω, ω1, ω2} : s(0) = ω}. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification. 54A25, 06E05, 54G12, 03E35.