Claus Doll

Adapting rail and road networks to weather extremes: case studies for southern Germany and Austria

Abstract The assessment of the current impacts of extreme weather conditions on transport systems reveals high costs in specific locations. Prominent examples for Europe are the economic consequences of the harsh winter periods 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 and the floods in Austria, Eastern Europe, Germany and the United Kingdom in 2005 and 2007. Departing from the EC-funded project WEATHER, this paper delves into the subject of adaptation strategies by revisiting the project’s general findings on adaptation strategies and by adding two specific cases: (1) advanced winter maintenance on roads in southwest Germany and (2) technical and organizational measures in Alpine rail transport. For these two cases, feasible adaptation strategies are elaborated and their potential is discussed in light of damage cost forecasts up to 2050. For the road sector, we find a high potential to mitigate weather-related costs, although damages here are expected to decline. In contrast, rail systems face strongly increasing damages and the mitigation options offered by improved information and communication systems seem to be largely exploited. Consequently, it is easier to justify expensive adaptation measures for high-cost rail infrastructures than for road transport. A generic analysis of 14 damage cases worldwide, however, revealed that generally awareness raising, cooperation and communication strategies are sufficient to mitigate the most severe damages by natural disasters.

User Costs and Benefits

Many transport economists have for some time proposed marginal social cost as the principle on which prices in the transport sector should be based and, in recent years, their prescription has come to be taken more and more seriously by policy-makers. However, in order to properly test the possible implications of implementing pricing based on marginal social cost and, ultimately, to introduce such a system, it is necessary to actually measure the marginal social costs concerned, and how they vary according to mode, time and context. This book reviews the transport pricing policy debate and reports on the significant advances made in measuring the marginal social costs of transport, particularly through UNITE and other European research projects. We look in turn at infrastructure, operating costs, user costs (both of congestion and of charges in frequency of scheduled transport services) accidents and environmental costs, and how these estimates have been used to examine the impact of marginal cost pricing in transport. We finish by examining how the results of case studies might be generalised to obtain estimates of marginal social costs for all circumstances and, finally, presenting our conclusions.

National Integrated Assessment Modelling zur Bewertung umweltpolitischer Instrumente : Entwicklung des otello-Modellsystems und dessen Anwendung auf die Bundesrepublik Deutschland

Auf internationaler Ebene wurden Ziele zur Minderung von Luftschadstoff- und klimarelevanten Emissionen vereinbart, deren Umsetzung den jeweiligen Unterzeichnerstaaten obliegt. Hierzu existieren zahlreiche umweltpolitische Instrumente, deren Effektivitat und Effizienz jedoch schwer abschatzbar sind. Daher ist es das Anliegen des im vorliegenden Buch beschriebenen otello-Modellsystems, solche politischen Instrumente in ihren okologischen und okonomischen Wirkungsmechanismen zu bewerten.

Economic Impacts of Introducing Tolls for Heavy-Goods Vehicles

This paper focuses on the wider economic and environmental impacts of introducing or expanding road toll systems for heavy-goods vehicles in selected Spanish provinces and how these impacts compare with those of the German toll system. For this purpose, literature and statistical analyses are supported by applications of the European system dynamics model, ASTRA-EC, and stakeholder interviews. The main conclusions of this study are that positive as well as negative impacts of road pricing systems are often overestimated. Enhancing the environmental friendliness of truck fleets through differentiated tariffs and the generation of additional funds for roads and other investments are positive arguments for toll systems. However, the review of existing systems and transport model applications showed limited to negligible effects on the competitiveness of the transport sector, logistics patterns, modal shares, and wider economic impacts with the current charge levels in Germany and Spain. Some specific user groups, such as small- and medium-sized transport enterprises based in peripheral locations, would face considerable difficulties. The success of newly revised truck tolling regimes depends heavily on local conditions, the design of tariffs, the revenues spent, and active participation by stakeholders.

Chapter 10 The German HGV motorway toll

This chapter explores the feasibility and possible benefits of amending the German Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) motorway toll system by adopting different pricing and revenue use rules. Economic efficiency and equity effects are assessed using the MOLINO partial equilibrium model and the ASTRA system dynamics model. Acceptability issues are also addressed using the results of a survey of actors in the German haulage business. According to first-best welfare theory user charges should be set equal to social marginal costs and the revenues should accrue entirely to the state. However, acceptability and long-term development considerations militate strongly in favour of earmarking revenues to the transport sector.