Decentralized Rail Capacity Allocation: a Model and Applications

Summary

The application of Directive 91/440 in European countries implies opening the access to railroad infrastructure to competing transport operators (TOs), while the network should be managed by an infrastructure company (IC). An adequate network access mechanism will have to be devised in order to allocate available capacity and determine access charges. We propose a game-theoretic model where the TOs request tracks to the IC and set service prices with the aim of maximizing their profit, on the basis of demand data. The IC allocates track capacity among the TOs and determines access tariffs through a market based allocation and pricing mechanism. The presented numerical simulations analyze the effects of increased congestion on a line segment with respect to effective schedules, access tariffs, service prices and profits.