The Impact of Economic Regulation on the Efficiency of European Railway Systems

In recent years, European railway regulation has been subject to major reform, with powers, independence and responsibilities of rail regulators across Europe strengthened considerably. This paper studies the impact of these reforms on the efficiency levels of a panel of 17 European railways (2002-2010). The novelty lies in the incorporation of a multi-dimensional rail regulation index – capturing the complexity of regulatory powers and activities – into an econometric framework alongside other reform variables. Our results suggest that the cost-reducing benefits of regulatory reform depend on the degree of (actual or desired) market openness, vertical structure, and the intensity of network usage

The impacts of regulatory structures on the efficiency of European railway systems

Amongst the reforms altering the European railway industry in the last two decades, the new provisions on rail (or transport) regulators’ renovated powers and independence have been little analysed by the literature. This study aims to quantitatively determine the impact of economic regulation on European railways efficiency and qualitatively identify the role of rail regulators across Europe. The quantitative analysis considers a sample of European railway systems for the period 2002-2010, and measures economic regulation by employing a purposely developed index rather than dummy variables, as widely utilised by previous literature. The findings differ depending on the way outputs are measured, with regulation producing cost reductions either when combined with vertical separation or when accompanied by competition. However, the combined impact of vertical separation and average levels of regulation only reduces costs when train density is below the sample mean. The qualitative analysis is based on the design of a questionnaire on rail regulation, collecting first-hand evidence from 20 regulators, infrastructure managers and railway operators across Europe. The questions take into account the findings of a specific literature review on a set of ideal characteristics germane to regulators in railways and comparable industries. Regulators seem to have achieved the necessary requirements in order to effectively operate. Independence is guaranteed on paper and in action, high levels of transparency render regulators accountable, and when intervention is requested, their responses appear prompt. On the other hand, the approval of track access charging schemes, together with the monitoring of the efficiency and quality of the infrastructure managers’ performances, only at times fully involves the regulators. Overall, from both analyses a complex scenario emerges, wherein strong economic regulation produces greater benefits in lightly dense contexts and when accompanied by vertical separation and effective competition

Evaluating the roles and powers of rail regulatory bodies in Europe: A survey-based approach

European railways have been shaped by multiple reforms since the mid-1990s, covering industry structure, market opening and economic regulation. However, the literature has given little attention to the latter; namely the evolution and impacts of regulatory reforms amongst Europe's railways. This paper fills this gap by providing an up-to-date, bottom-up assessment of current rail regulatory practice in Europe. We develop a survey of economic regulators across Europe, thus complementing top-down studies of the impact of economic regulation by enabling a richer insight into regulatory activity and its impacts. The questionnaire is based on a review of the literature on ideal regulatory characteristics across multiple industries. Our results show that European rail regulators, in general, exhibit many of the features of ideal regulation; in particular around key features such as independence, resourcing, longevity and expertise, transparency and in turn stability and predictability. However, we find that rail regulatory bodies could take a more proactive role in shaping track access charges, given their importance in respect of efficient use of the network and maintaining non-discriminatory access. Importantly, there is also scope for regulators to play a greater role in regulating the efficiency and quality of infrastructure managers, and potentially becoming more involved in the designing stages of passenger market opening as it emerges; and these changes could deliver substantial beneficial impacts for rail users and funders across Europe

The Patient Needs Assessment in Cancer Care: Identifying Barriers and Facilitators to Implementation in the UK and Canada

Purpose Personalised information and support can be provided to cancer survivors using a structured approach. Needs assessment tools such as the Holistic Needs Assessment (HNA) in the United Kingdom and the Comprehensive Problem and Symptom Screening (COMPASS) questionnaire in Canada are recommended for use in practice; however, they are not widely embedded into practice. The study aimed to determine the extent to which nurses working in cancer care in the UK and Manitoba value NA and identify any barriers and facilitators they experience. Method Oncology nurses involved in the care of cancer patients in the UK (n=110) and Manitoba (n=221) were emailed a link to an online survey by lead cancer nurses in the participating institutions. A snowball technique was used to increase participation across the UK resulting in 306 oncology nurses completing the survey in the UK and 116 in Canada. Results Participants expressed concerns that these assessments were becoming bureaucratic “tick-box exercises” which did not meet patients’ needs. Barriers to completion were time, staff shortages, lack of confidence, privacy and resources. Facilitators were privacy for confidential discussions, training, confidence in knowledge and skills, and referral to resources. Conclusion Many busy oncology nurses completed this survey demonstrating the importance they attach to HNAs and COMPASS. The challenges faced with implementing these assessments into everyday practice require training, time, support services and an appropriate environment. It is vital that the HNA and COMPASS are conducted at optimum times for patients to fully utilise time and resources

Persistent scatterer SAR interferometry (PSI) for airport runways monitoring

In the last decades, monitoring the regional-scale deformation of international airports has become a priority, in order to ensure the highest operational security and safety standards. Within this context, among the most innovative and suitable techniques for transport infrastructures monitoring purpose, Persistent Scatterer SAR Interferometry (PSI) technology has proven to be an effective technique to investigate ground deformations [1-3]. However, the application of PSI to effectively and continuously monitor settlement in airports is an open challenge. In this study, a long time-series analysis of a high-resolution COSMO-Skymed satellite image-stack, acquired from September 2011 to October 2019, was collected and processed by PSI technique to retrieve the mean deformation velocity and time series of surface deformation of the runways of Leonardo Da Vinci-International Airport. The mean PS velocity information is compared to the ground-based levelling-data, collected on the runway using a total station, in order to validate and increase the feasibility of the monitoring processing. Finally, various Deformation maps using the Natural Neighbor Geostatistical interpolation algorithm [4], were created and demonstrated a maximum subsidence rate is up to 15.3 mm/yr during the investigated period. The results confirmed the well-known major down-lifting phenomenon over an area, which has undergone routine maintenance. Results have demonstrated the viability of integrating InSAR and topographical in-situ survey methods, paving the way to future implementations in prioritizing maintenance activities and helping for decision-making to have a comprehensive and inclusive information data system for the investigation of survey sites. The research is supported by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research under the National Project “Extended resilience analysis of transport networks (EXTRA TN): Towards a simultaneously space, aerial and ground sensed infrastructure for risks prevention”, PRIN 2017, Prot. 20179BP4S

Health monitoring of masonry arch bridges by integration of GPR and InSAR techniques

Approximately 70,000 masonry arch bridge spans (brick and stone) are reported to exist in the United Kingdom with in excess of tens of thousands throughout Europe. A good portion of these bridges is still operational and form part of the road and rail network systems in many countries. However, a great majority of these structures require desperate repair and maintenance [1]. Non-destructive testing (NDT) methods such as ground penetrating radar (GPR), 3D laser scanning, accelerometer sensors and thermal cameras amongst many others have been used to assess and monitor such structures in the past few years [2]. However, research has proven that stand-alone or integrated use of ground-based techniques may not represent a definitive solution to some major structural issues, such as scour and differential settlements [3], as these require continuous monitoring and data collection on long-term basis. To that extent, use of satellite data-based synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometry (InSAR) has proven to be effective in measuring displacements of infrastructure [4] [5] and natural terrain [6] over longer periods of observation. Within this context, the paper presents a new integrated monitoring approach including use of the GPR and the InSAR techniques to an historic masonry arch bridge - the Old Aylesford Bridge in Kent, UK – a 13th century bridge, crossing the river Medway. Main objectives of the research were: (1) to prove the viability of low-frequency and high-frequency GPR systems in providing structural detailing of the bridge deck at different depths and resolutions; (2) to be able to measure structural displacements with a millimetre accuracy caused by the seasonal variation of the water level in the river and the river bed soil expansions. Results have proven the viability of the above process to form the basis for an integrated health monitoring mechanism

A novel geo-statistical approach for transport infrastructure network monitoring by persistent scatterer interferometry (PSI)

Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) is an Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) technique based on a multi-temporal interferogram analysis of SAR images. The aim of the technique is to extract long-term high phase stability benchmarks of coherent point targets, namely Persistent Scatterers (PS). In the last decades, several approaches have been developed to obtain PSI point targets, proving their viability for applications to transport infrastructure monitoring and surveillance. However, SAR satellites can only detect displacements in the Line-of-Sight (LoS), with reference to the specific orbit-related incident angle. This work proposes a novel geo-statistical approach to ease post-processing of large datasets of PSs resulting from the application of the PSI algorithms over an area of interest. The approach aims at correcting the component of the displacement collected from the acquisition geometry of the sensor

The impacts of housing conditions on physical and mental health : a critical mini-review informed by a rapid conversion of evidence from Alidoust and Huang (2021)

This article provides a summary and critical appraisal of the systematic review conducted by Alidoust et al. 1 regarding the various effects of housing on both physical and psychological well-being. We aim to discuss the review's findings against existing published evidence to draw out policy and practical implications. Our mini-review illuminates a wide range of housing-related factors which impact on health around which we draw evidence-based policy initiatives and implications, and outline avenues for future research. This mini-review is part of the wider Rapid Conversion of Evidence Summaries (RaCES) program which aims to critically appraise systematic reviews and highlight evidence-based policy and practice implications

Factors affecting thrombolysis in acute stroke: longer door-to-needle (DTN) time in younger people? [Abstract No. 53]

Introduction: Shortening the time to delivery of IV thrombolysis improves patient outcomes and reduces adverse events. This research aimed to explore patient and service delivery factors that increase or decrease DTN time for thrombolysis. Method: We conducted a Service Evaluation from July 2011 to March 2013, using stroke data from SINAP and DASH databases. Data was provided by 6 acute trusts in Lancashire and Cumbria which used telemedicine, and 11 stroke services within the North East of England which instead used face-to-face. Our investigation concentrates on admissions to hospital occurring out of routine working hours, when resources are particularly constrained. Descriptive and inferential analyses, focusing on multivariate Cox regressions models selected using a forward stepwise approach, were then carried out to determine which factors impacted on DTN time, our main outcome variable. Results: After testing alternative specifications, our final model included these potential risk factors: mode of thrombolysis decision-making (either face-to-face or telemedicine); hospital; age; sex. Our results show that DTN time was strongly influenced by patient’s age (p<0.01), with older people receiving thrombolysis more quickly. Among the statistically significant variables, type of hospital (p<0.001) appeared to affect DTN times, together with patient’s sex (p¼0.01), suggesting that males had shorter DTN times. Conclusion: Older age was associated with shorter DTN times, with this effect being independent of other factors. Therefore, our research suggests that age played a predominant role in the delivery of thrombolysis, rather than solely through the choice of assessing acute strokethrough face-to-face or telemedicine