The impact of reliability on the productivity of railroad companies

Authors

Megersa Abate
Mark Lijesen
Eric Pels
Adriaan Roelevelt

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

2013

Subject Area

mode - rail, place - europe, operations - reliability

Keywords

Reliability, Productivity, Production frontier, Railroad, Public transport

Abstract

This paper studies the relationship between reliability (proxied by punctuality) and productivity in passenger railroad services. Increasing reliability may lower productivity, as it requires inputs, that can’t be used to produce outputs. The relationship between reliability and productivity also runs through other factors, in which case a positive relationship may be expected. We apply data envelopment analysis and the Malmquist index approach to a panel of seven European railway systems to explore this relationship. Our empirical results suggest that increasing reliability does not harm the productivity of railway operations and aiming to improve both may be a feasible strategy.

Rights

Permission to publish the abstract has been given by Elsevier, copyright remains with them.

Comments

Transportation Research Part E Home Page:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/13665545

Recommended Citation

Abate, M., Lijesen, M., Pels, E., & Roelevelt, A. (2013). The impact of reliability on the productivity of railroad companies. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Vol. 51, pp. 41-49.