Möjligheten att fatta beslut om behovet av anslagsmedel till drift, underhåll och reinvestering av vägaroch järnvägar baserat på ett väl strukturerat underlag är idag små. Detta skapar betydande risker attmedel används på ett samhällsekonomiskt ineffektivt sätt. För att Trafikverket ska kunna genomföradenna verksamhet så att sannolikheten att medlen används på rätt sätt ökar krävs därför en utveckling avett transparent beslutstöd.VTI redovisar i föreliggande rapport en kartläggning av kunskapsläget inom de olika delområden därkunskaper krävs för att få till stånd en samhällsekonomisk analys av drift, underhåll och reinvestering.Vår bedömning är att det idag inte finns modellverktyg som gör det möjligt att utan vidare genomförasådana analyser. Samtidigt visar genomgången att det finns goda förutsättningar att redan inom relativtkort tid ta fram ett underlag som gör det möjligt att besvara åtminstone delar av de frågeställningar somformulerats. Genomgången pekar således på att det finns stora möjligheter att flytta fram positionernabåde inom väg- och järnvägsområdet. Fem specifika projekt har utformats varav tre avser insatser på kortsikt och två på lång sikt. Målsättningen på lång sikt är att kunna göra en bedömning av vilkenkostnadsvolym och tillståndsnivå som behövs utifrån ett samhällsekonomiskt perspektiv på olika vägaroch järnvägar.

The ability to make structured decisions about the optimal funding for operation, maintenance and renewal of roads and railways is currently limited. This creates significant risks that the funds are used in an inefficient manner. It is therefore important that the Swedish Transport Administration develops a transparent model for decision support in this field. VTI has undertaken a review of the state of knowledge in various areas required to bring about an economic analysis of operation, maintenance and renewal. The review shows that there are good prospects to produce a decision basis within a relatively short time. This makes it possible to answer at least some of the issues formulated. The review indicates that there are great opportunities to move forward both in road and railway areas. Five specific projects have been suggested, of which three are short term and two are long term. The aim in the long run is to make transparent and structured decisions on funding needed from an economic perspective on various road and railway sections.

The purpose of this paper is to answer the question of whether train delays are a price-relevant marginal cost. The question has been raised by the Swedish infrastructure manager (Trafikverket) which is responsible for setting track access charges. The charging of track access fees is regulated in the Railway Act and consists mainly of marginal cost pricing and fees for cost recovery above marginal cost.

The main reason for charging track fees according to the marginal cost principle is to give economic incentive in order to influence the market agents to take these externalities into account in their decision-making. When an externality is correctly priced this externality is no longer "external" on behalf of the market agents and, in this way, economic efficiency is achieved through a decentralized decision-making.

In order for a certain cost to be price-relevant, with respect to the marginal cost pricing principle, it is required that there are some externalities involved and also that there is a relationship between cost and traffic volume.

Rail services are conducted according to a detailed timetable where each train is regulated geographically with minute precision. Delays primarily occur through an incident, such as infrastructure failure or breakdown of vehicles, leading one or more trains to deviate from the time table. Subsequently this initial delay is spread in the system through the interaction between trains that is built into the timetable.

In the short run the capacity of the infrastructure is fixed. Train delays can therefore be influenced by the number of faults occurred and by the construction of the timetable (which is crucial for the spread of the initial disturbances to other trains).

Recently a new track fee, called "quality fee", has been introduced which is aimed at influencing the number of faults occurring, both on behalf of train operating companies and the infrastructure manager. The fee is initially set at a rather low level and may be raised in the future if it will be considered necessary.