Subsidy and Productivity in the Privatised British Passenger Railway

This paper gives a brief overview of subsidy arrangements in the privatised passenger rail industry in Britain before focusing on productivity performance across the first four years under the new privatised structure. Subsidy reductions are analysed in terms of the average annual percentage increases required in passenger revenues to offset these reductions for each train operating company. These are found to range from 2% to 21%. It is highlighted however that such 'gains' could equally be achieved through cutting costs, hence subsidy cuts are also specified in relation to cost reductions and found to range from 1% to 10%. Productivity is then examined through the use of a Translog productivity index, with passenger train kilometres specified as the output, and labour, traction rolling stock and infrastructure specified as the inputs. For the network as a whole, it is found that total productivity has risen on average by 4% p.a. over the initial privatisation period. Most of these gains have been achieved through labour reductions and increases in output resulting from improved utilisation of existing inputs. Comparisons are then made with the performance of thenationalised British Rail over a number of time periods. The overriding conclusion is that gains made in the early period of private sector management, although appearingto be of a sufficient size to offset subsidy reductions, are not as high as those made in the later period of public sector management. It would appear therefore that it is ownership structure, towards a more market orientated organisation, rather than ownership form per se, that is the key component in productivity gain

Threshold concepts and introductory electronics

Electronics and circuit theory are acknowledged as troublesome subjects when first introduced to students. This leads to low student retention into later electronics courses, especially in universities that offer a common first year where students are free to change streams after the first year. We report on a detailed study of the application of Threshold Concept Theory to an introductory electronics course. We identify some Threshold Concepts, explicit and tacit. We postulate that a high density of Threshold Concepts accounts for the reputation for troublesome learning in, and low retention following, these courses. We further suggest that the bimodal distribution of marks that is commonly observed in electronics teaching is a hallmark of a Thresold Concept. This may have significant impact on assessment

‘Getting stuck’ in analogue electronics: Threshold concepts as an explanatory model

Could the challenge of mastering threshold concepts be a potential factor that influences a student's decision to continue in electronics engineering? This was the question that led to a collaborative research project between educational researchers and the Faculty of Engineering in a New Zealand university. This paper deals exclusively with the qualitative data from this project, which was designed to investigate the high attrition rate of students taking introductory electronics in a New Zealand university. The affordances of the various teaching opportunities and the barriers that students perceived are examined in the light of recent international research in the area of threshold concepts and transformational learning. Suggestions are made to help students move forward in their thinking, without compromising the need for maintaining the element of intellectual uncertainty that is crucial for tertiary teaching. The issue of the timing of assessments as a measure of conceptual development or the crossing of thresholds is raised

Long term productivity gains in the privatised British passenger rail industry – A case study of Malmquist productivity index measurements

This paper assesses long term productivity in the privatised British passenger rail industry using a Malmquist productivity index (MPI) generated using three different efficiency assessment methods, namely data envelopment analysis (DEA), corrected ordinary least squares (COLS) and the stochastic production frontier (SPF). Theresults indicate that over the period 1997 to 2015, the industry achieved annual average productivity gains of around 1% to 1 1/2%, with most of this improvement coming in the first half of the period, and the second half of the period displayed unitary productivity returns. Virtually all gains have come as a result of technical change, however the rate of increase was found to gradually decreasing throughout the whole time period, hence futureproductivity gains may be more difficult to achieve. The results from the three approaches are considered, and the COLS is found to be most consistent with the idea of total factor productivity and technical change as long run concepts and efficiency change as a short run phenomenon

Production economics of a vertically separated railway – The case of the British train operating companies.

This paper focuses on the production economics issuessurrounding the vertical separation of infrastructurefrom rail services with regard to passenger operations. Acase study of the British passenger railway privatisationis used. The British approach to rail reform is unique in three aspects. Firstly, the extent of horizontal separation of the former state owned railway, with the former monolithic state enterprise being divided into 104 individual autonomous units. Secondly, with only five years between the government white paper and full implementation of the revised structure, the time-frame over which these structural changes were implemented was very short. Thirdly, the extent of the involvement of the private enterprise in these reforms, with 96 of the autonomous units highlighted above transferred to theprivate sector.The most significant finding is that the size of train operating companies matter. In any vertical separation of the railway therefore, consideration needs to be given to the size (and hence number) of the train service provider(s). Furthermore, it was suggested that all British TOCs were operating on the downward part of the average cost curve i.e. all were too small in terms of trainkilometre production. Therefore, one of the key areas forproductivity gains for TOCs would be in the area of scaleeconomies. Finally, based upon estimates of the price elasticity of infrastructure, it would appear that in the British example the regulator has been reasonably successful in controlling the market power of the monopoly operator, Railtrack

Long run productivity and profitability in the British bus industry

The passing of the Transport Act 1985 deregulated and privatised the bus industry in Great Britain outside of London, however failed to address the prime specified aim of reversing the long run decline in patronage. Review of the literature suggests one of the main reasons for this was due to subsequent industry consolidation that resulted in anti-competitive market structures and outcomes, i.e. inefficient production and fare levels that resulted in monopoly profits.In the current study, the British bus industry is analysed over the period 1994 to 2016 through the estimation of long run Malmquist productivity indices and supplementary profit data in order to look for evidence of such inefficient market outcomes. From the mid-point of the period reviewed however, the results for London are entirely consistent with the opposite, i.e. efficient market outcomes. This is also found to be the case for the deregulated areas, but the most striking characteristic in these areas are consistent and continual technical change declines. This is clear evidence of long-term structural decline. The policy implications are that any policy measures should be part of a package of wider policy actions that seek to improve the underlying economics of bus service provision in Great Britain. From an albeit limited amount of past research, this would appear to lie in the direction of proactive public transport initiatives and car use limiting measures

Urban freight policy maturity and sustainable logistics: are they related?

Problems associated with urban freight are well known and documented in the academic literature, particularly with regards to the impact on air quality and general intrusion of public space. As a defining principle however, urban freight has generally been left solely to operate on free market principles, with policy interventions generally being solely ‘problem’ focused. Given the underlying economics of freight transport, and particularly the cost advantages of road-based transport, intervention by public bodies is clearly a critical issue, however to date has received limited attention in the urban freight research literature. The aim of the current research is to examine if there is any relationship between the extent of local authorities’ freight policy development and the success of a policy driven (green) urban freight pilot initiative. This is based on five city case studies located across Northern Europe and uses an adapted form of Kiba-Janiak (Res Transp Bus Manag 24:4–16, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rtbm.2017.05.003) five stages of ‘city maturity’ with regards to urban freight policy development. Each city’s policy framework is mapped onto one of these states of maturity. The success of the pilots in each city is then matched against the maturity of the policy framework. Taken at face value, the results show little correlation between the two, and hence the success of any initiative would appear to be independent of the policy framework. The real issue however is found to be low urban freight transport policy maturities within the case study sample, specifically a lack of tactical and operational functions, i.e. the ability to actually do something. The concern at the more general level is that what this leads to is policy stagnation