A Data Envelopment Analysis approach for accessibility measures: Simulating operational enhancement scenarios for railway across Europe

Introduction: As well known, infrastructure endowment influences competitiveness of a region since the characteristics of a transport system in terms of capacity, connectivity, speeds, etc. determine the advantages/disadvantages of an area compared to other locations. This article attempts to investigate the potential impacts on rail accessibility across Europe when different possible operational enhancement scenarios are simulated. Methods: The simulations are carried out by means of a combination of the TRANSTOOLS rail network and Traffic Analyst, the post-processing analyses are implemented in Matlab and the results for each zone (at NUTS3 level) are reported both in tabular form and in easy-to-readArcGIS maps. Several accessibility measures are evaluated including two Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approaches aiming to construct a composite index for embracing all the complementary information provided by ‘partial’ accessibility sub-indicators; to better evaluate and understand the results either sensitivity and robustness analyses are performed for both the aggregate indicators. Results: The outcomes provide insight into where major benefits in terms of accessibility can be expected; in particular the current infrastructure endowment already benefits many regions but improvements in speed could still increase significantly rail accessibility across Europe (mainly outside the core area as in Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, etc.). Furthermore both the proposed global indexes, although associating different ‘endogenous’ weights to the various sub-indicators, appear to be worthy and robust against uniform random noise. Conclusions: Ultimately the results provide information useful for the prioritization of investment needs; moreover even if the interpretation of the partial accessibility indicators is clear and useful for policy-makers, the evaluation of a composite measure could allow planners not only to compare or fully rank the level of accessibility for different regions but even to control for eventual confusing and/or incomplete results that may appear when using only a partial approach.JRC.J.1-Economics of Climate Change, Energy and Transpor

Capacity assessment of railway infrastructure: Tools, methodologies and policy relevance in the EU context

The transport sector is increasingly faced with several issues related to the rising of traffic demand such as congestion, energy consumption, noise, pollution, safety, etc.. Due to its low external and environmental costs, railway can be considered (together with inland waterways and short-sea-shipping) as a key factor for the sustainable development of a more competitive and resource-efficient transport system (European Commission, White Paper 2011). In order to reinforce the role of rail in European transport , there is a strong need of addressing the efficiency of the system and customers' satisfaction through targeted actions, i.e. rising reliability and quality of service. This becomes particularly pressing as many parts of the existing railway infrastructures are reaching their maximum capacity thus shrinking their capability to provide users and customers a higher or even adequate level of service. Taking also into account that transport demand forecasts for 2030 clearly show a marked increase of rail activity across the whole Europe, we aim to address the issue of rail congestion in the context of relevant policy questions: Is the actual rail Infrastructure really able to absorb forecasted traffic, without significant impacts on punctuality of the system? Would the already planned interventions on the European railway infrastructure guarantee an adequate available capacity and consequently adequate reliability and level of service? To which extent would the coveted competition in an open railway market be influenced by capacity scarcity, mainly during peak hours or along more profitable corridors? An accurate estimation of capacity of the rail network can help answer these questions, leading policy makers to better decisions and helping to minimize costs for users. In this context this report explores the issue of capacity scarcity and sets this issue in the context of other relevant policy issues (track access charges, cost/benefit and accessibility measures, maintenance programmes, freight services’ reliability, external, marginal congestion or scarcity cost for rail, impacts of climate changes, etc.), providing a methodological review of capacity and punctuality assessment procedures. To better explore the real applicability and the time and/or data constraints of each methodology, the study reports some practical applications to the European railway network. Finally in the last section the report discusses the topic from a modelling perspective, as the quantitative estimation of railway capacity constraints is a key issue in order to provide better support to transport policies at EU level.JRC.J.1-Economics of Climate Change, Energy and Transpor

Mapping the ICT in EU Regions: Location, Employment, Factors of Attractiveness and Economic Impact

Factual evidence suggests that ICT-led growth and ICT-producing sectors are strongly localised geographically. Given that the nature of ongoing technological change and innovation dynamics has a strong local/regional component, public policies need to be designed at this level as well. However, little is known - if anything - of the regional impact of ICT. The present study documents the regional impact of ICT by mapping the location of the ICT industry in the EU25, analysing the volume and nature of ICT employment across European regions, identifying the determinants of EU regions¿ attractiveness for ICT business location and, finally, assessing the contribution of ICT investment to regional growth and convergence. The study provides evidence for the prominent role played by the Computing Services sector in recent employment and skills' changes in the ICT industry, as well as for the emergence of new regional growth poles in the EU. Departing from traditional business models, this sector of activity presents relatively low sunk costs, especially in terms of physical capital requirement while having strong innovative and skills content, opening-up new opportunities for regional development in the EU. These factors also seem to explain much of the recent trends in ICT multinationals firms' location over the past decade. The study also shows that ICT capital investment tends to promote regional economic convergence. Regional policies aiming to promote regional cohesion must therefore consider ICT diffusion as a potentially important tool for the promotion of convergence throughout the EU. Importantly, ICT diffusion should also be accompanied by other policies and, in particular, policies aiming at improving education and skills levels. The study also shows that the absence of high ICT specialisation should not be seen as a major barrier to promoting the impact of ICT on regional development.JRC.J.4-Information Societ

The use of Open Data for estimating rail accessibility in Europe

Accessibility is a greatly significant concept for evaluating spatial interactions and transport systems attractiveness. The ability to accurately measure accessibility is becoming more and more crucial for setting up policies aimed to increase the competitiveness of a transport system by fostering resource efficient modes such as rail. Nevertheless, several rail accessibility studies consider only static variables, such as distance, average speed and travel time, neglecting the temporal components of the considered variables. These limitations are often due to the lack of detailed data. In order to overcome the mentioned weaknesses, this paper presents a comprehensive methodology aimed to evaluate passenger rail accessibility using open data from both time-based GTFS sources and Eurostat geographical layers. Based on passenger train timetable, a set of accessibility indicators are built for allowing a comprehensive analysis of railway connections. The analysis is performed taking into account the Eurostat Local Administrative Units (LAU level 2, municipalities or equivalent units) and the main urban centers definition based on the concept of Greater City established by EC DG REGIO and OECD. The developed methodology is then applied to three European countries (Netherlands, Great Britain and France) where GTFS data are currently available.JRC.J.1-Economics of Climate Change, Energy and Transpor

Mobility Data across the EU 28 Member States: Results from an Extensive CAWI Survey

AbstractThe EU-wide survey presented here was carried out in 2014 with the objective of gathering in order a number of transport and mobility indicators on transport user preferences at both urban and long-distance level in a uniform way, with emphasis on the potential of emerging transport technologies and the acceptability of various transport policy measures.The CAWI (Computer Aided Web Interview) survey covered all 28 Member States of the European Union with the same questionnaire translated in the local languages. Samples of 1000 individuals in each country reflected the composition of adult population (from 16 years on) in terms of gender, age class, employment status, education level and living region.The survey provided a rich and comparable picture of mobility across the 28 EU countries; many similarities across countries were found together with some differences. In a way, the findings suggest that, despite some national peculiarities, mobility habits and behaviour are relatively homogenous in Europe and are determined especially by socio-economic drivers.The result of the survey confirmed that passenger mobility in EU is heavily centred on personal car, which is the most used transport mode also for long distance trips. Relatively higher modal share in East European countries appears to be driven mainly by the lower car availability rather than higher quality of public transport services.Europeans’ trips are essentially local, even though there is a share of citizens travelling frequently over longer distances. In particular, individuals with highly qualified jobs travel significantly more than others above 1000km not only for business but also for leisure.According to the survey results, the attitude towards electric vehicles is rather positive: one third of EU citizens declared to be willing to consider purchasing a battery or hybrid car in the next future. The picture for car sharing is more blurred: only a minority is interested in this service and, interestingly, half of those interested do not see this service as an actual alternative to car ownership. Opinions in relation to policy issues such as the measures for the internalization of environmental effects of transport are quite differentiated but in general regulatory restrictions seem to be more acceptable than pricing measures

The impact of measuring internal travel distances on self-potentials and accessibility

Internal travel distances are fundamental in accessibility measurement, as they affect the weight of the intra-regional interactions, especially when using a gravity formulation. The contribution of the internal accessibility of each zone to its overall accessibility is known as self-potential. Several studies demonstrate its importance in accessibility analyses, especially in the most urbanized regions. It is precisely in urban regions where internal travel distances (measured as travel length, time or cost) are more difficult to estimate due to congestion, which in turn may be influenced by factors such as urban density, urban morphology, network infrastructure, etc. Accessibility analyses usually use coarse estimates of internal distances, generally based on the regions' area and in some cases considering its level of urbanization. In this study we explore different forms of estimating internal travel distances in accessibility analysis and reflect on their advantages and drawbacks. One of the main difficulties that arise when measuring internal travel distances is the lack of data. However, the growing potential of ICTs (Information and communication technologies) in providing new sources of data can be used to improve representativeness of data. In this study we used speed profiles data from TeleAtlas/TomTom to calculate internal travel distances for European NUTS-3 regions and we compare this measure with three other metrics traditionally used in the literature. Following this exercise, we discuss the conditions under which it is advantageous to use more complex measures of internal travel distance. Finally we test the sensitivity of potential accessibility indicators to the combined effect of different internal distance metrics and distance decay factors.JRC.J.1-Economics of Climate Change, Energy and Transpor

POTEnCIA model description - version 0.9

This report lays out the modelling approach that is implemented in the POTEnCIA modelling tool (Policy Oriented Tool for Energy and Climate Change Impact Assessment) and describes its analytical capabilities. POTEnCIA is a modelling tool for the EU energy system that follows a hybrid partial equilibrium approach. It combines behavioural decisions with detailed techno-economic data, therefore allowing for an analysis of both technology-oriented policies and of those addressing behavioural change. Special features and mechanisms are introduced in POTEnCIA in order to appropriately reflect the implications of an uptake of novel energy technologies and of changing market structures, allowing for the robust assessment of ambitious policy futures for the EU energy system. The model runs on an annual basis with a typical projection timeline to 2050.JRC.J.1-Economics of Climate Change, Energy and Transpor

The future of road transport

A perfect storm of new technologies and new business models is transforming not only our vehicles, but everything about how we get around, and how we live our lives. The JRC report “The future of road transport - Implications of automated, connected, low-carbon and shared mobility” looks at some main enablers of the transformation of road transport, such as data governance, infrastructures, communication technologies and cybersecurity, and legislation. It discusses the potential impacts on the economy, employment and skills, energy use and emissions, the sustainability of raw materials, democracy, privacy and social fairness, as well as on the urban context. It shows how the massive changes on the horizon represent an opportunity to move towards a transport system that is more efficient, safer, less polluting and more accessible to larger parts of society than the current one centred on car ownership. However, new transport technologies, on their own, won't spontaneously make our lives better without upgrading our transport systems and policies to the 21st century. The improvement of governance and the development of innovative mobility solutions will be crucial to ensure that the future of transport is cleaner and more equitable than its car-centred present.JRC.C.4-Sustainable Transpor

The Location of ICT activities in EU regions. Implications for regional policies

La localización de las industrias productoras de las TIC importa para la competitividad global y el potencial de crecimiento de largo plazo. Por ejemplo, la contribución diferencial de las TIC al crecimiento económico entre los EE.UU. y la UE se menciona a menudo como una de la causas principales que explica la divergencia en el funcionamiento del crecimiento de estas dos áreas desde mediados de los 90. Asu vez, desde mediados de los 90, los países con especial dinámica en el crecimiento económico han tendido a ser sumamente especializados en industrias productoras y usuarias de TIC, véase Van Ark e Inkaar (2005). Más generalmente, los sectores productores de las TIC, tienden a promover el cambio tecnológico y la capacidad innovadora que se consideran ser la base del crecimiento económico y de la competitividad. Cuando se considera la economía de la UE, las industrias TIC aparecen concentradas en un número limitado de regiones, véase Koski et al., (2002) para la evidencia empírica. Un primer objetivo del documento es documentar la localización de las industrias productoras de las TIC en regiones europeas para analizar los cluster existentes de la UE así como los cambios recientes en estas industrias usando datos actualizados de empleo y localización de la empresa, especialmente con relación a la ampliación de la UE en mayo de 2004. Sin embargo, la localización de los sectores productores de TIC no es el único objetivo. Un aspecto crucial se refiere a la naturaleza de las actividades que se están emprendiendo en diversas regiones. Las industrias de las TIC sobre todo tienen diversas características en términos de capital humano, requerimientos de formación y contenido del conocimiento. En particular, debido a la asociación positiva entre el capital humano, conocimiento y crecimiento de largo plazo, es importante analizar en qué medida los cluster regionales de las TIC en la UE se diferencian según estas características. La segunda cuestión abordada se refiere a la naturaleza de las actividades TIC emprendidas en las regiones de la UE. Por último, el trabajo proporciona estimaciones econométricas sobre la localización de las empresas en la industria de las TIC a través de las regiones de la UE. El trabajo considera específicamente el caso de la localización de las multinacionales. Los resultados de los determinantes de la localización de las empresas parece diferir ampliamente dependiendo del sector de las TIC considerado, como del tipo de empresa considerada. A partir de estos resultados se deriva un número de implicaciones de política

Transport Economics and Modelling

Research on economic issues of transport and development of models for policy impact assessment.JRC.J.1-Economics of Climate Change, Energy and Transpor