Mirjana Bugarinovic

A systems approach to access charges in unbundling railways

This article presents a systems approach to access charges in unbundling railways where an infrastructure manager charges services to operators on an open market. The motive for this research is the fact that until now no universal model of access charges has been defined. We define a universal access charges model for an essential service package for a mid- and small-size network based on a systems approach to recovering the costs that are incurred as a result of the operation of a train. System elements are a railway network, trains and costs. Having in mind the system complexity a combination of an analytical and engineering approach has been used for access charges modelling. The model has been developed for a Serbian mid-size railway network and tested on real data. The numerical results of model application indicate that with charges defined in this way it is possible to track cost and cost management by services.

The missing component in rail charging modeling—access charges principle selection

The motive of this research is the fact that until now no universal model of access charges (AC) has been defined. In the process of modeling, the AC principle is one of the key elements for defining the AC. In this paper, a model for the AC principle selection based on the analytic network process (ANP) approach is proposed. The developed model presents the objectives of the identified stakeholders through the established criteriafromthreedifferentperspectives:thegovernmentinfluence,railwaymarketenvironment,andefficiency of network use. Based on the results of a research, network structure of the ANP method can successfully resolve the dependence and conflicts among evaluation criteria for the AC principle selection. The proposed ANP-based model can become a tool for evaluation and ranking of the AC principle as shown in the case study of the Serbian Railways. This paper is based on real data.