IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/tse/wpaper/32558.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Competition For Versus In the Market of Long-Distance Passenger Rail Services

Author

Listed:
  • Cherbonnier, Frédéric
  • Ivaldi, Marc
  • Muller-Vibes, Catherine
  • Van Der Straeten, Karine

Abstract

This paper is aimed at evaluating the net gains and trade-offs at stake in implementing the competition of the rail mode in the long distance passenger market either by means of franchise or by an open access mechanism. We simulate the outcomes of competition in and for the market using a differentiated-products oligopoly model allowing for inter- and intra-modal competition in a long distance passenger market. Specifically we first calibrate the model using data describing high speed lines in France and show that the incumbent railway operator’s strategy does not simply boil down to a short-term profit maximization (e.g., because of existing regulation or limit-pricing strategy). This yields two important results when simulating competition. First, whether it is for or in the market, the opening to competition does not guarantee a decrease in prices in favor of passengers. Second, the effects of opening up to competition for the market are relatively predictable and potentially positive, while those of opening up to competition in the market remain very uncertain.

Suggested Citation

  • Cherbonnier, Frédéric & Ivaldi, Marc & Muller-Vibes, Catherine & Van Der Straeten, Karine, 2018. "Competition For Versus In the Market of Long-Distance Passenger Rail Services," TSE Working Papers 18-901, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), revised Apr 2018.
    • Handle: RePEc:tse:wpaper:32558
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.tse-fr.eu/sites/default/files/TSE/documents/doc/wp/2018/wp_tse_901.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ivaldi, Marc & Seabright, Paul, 2003. "The Economics of Passenger Rail Transport: A Survey," IDEI Working Papers 163, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse.
    2. Milgrom, Paul & Roberts, John, 1982. "Limit Pricing and Entry under Incomplete Information: An Equilibrium Analysis," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(2), pages 443-459, March.
    3. Marc Ivaldi & Catherine Vibes, 2008. "Price Competition in the Intercity Passenger Transport Market: A Simulation Model," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 42(2), pages 225-254, May.
    4. Bergantino, Angela S. & Capozza, Claudia & Capurso, Mauro, 2015. "The impact of open access on intra- and inter-modal rail competition. A national level analysis in Italy," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 77-86.
    5. Chris Nash, 2009. "When to Invest in High-Speed Rail Links and Networks?," OECD/ITF Joint Transport Research Centre Discussion Papers 2009/16, OECD Publishing.
    6. Bergantino, Angela S. & Capozza, Claudia & Capurso, Mauro, 2015. "The impact of open access on intra- and inter-modal rail competition. A national level analysis in Italy," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 77-86.
    7. Álvarez-SanJaime, Óscar & Cantos-Sanchez, Pedro & Moner-Colonques, Rafael & Sempere-Monerris, Jose J., 2015. "A model of internal and external competition in a High Speed Rail line," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 4(3), pages 178-187.
    8. Steven T. Berry, 1994. "Estimating Discrete-Choice Models of Product Differentiation," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 25(2), pages 242-262, Summer.
    9. David Sappington & J. Sidak, 2003. "Incentives for Anticompetitive Behavior by Public Enterprises," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 22(3), pages 183-206, May.
    10. Hylke Dijkstra, 2015. "Geopolitics and Expertise: Knowledge and Authority in European Diplomacy, by M. Kuus (Chichester, Wiley Blackwell, 2014, ISBN 9781118291702); x+228pp., £24.99 pb," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(5), pages 1187-1187, September.
    11. Bergantino, Angela Stefania & Capozza, Claudia, 2015. "One price for all? Price discrimination and market captivity: Evidence from the Italian city-pair markets," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 231-244.
    12. Phill Wheat & Andrew S. J. Smith, 2015. "Do the Usual Results of Railway Returns to Scale and Density Hold in the Case of Heterogeneity in Outputs? A Hedonic Cost Function Approach," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 49(1), pages 35-57, January.
    13. Swan, William M. & Adler, Nicole, 2006. "Aircraft trip cost parameters: A function of stage length and seat capacity," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 105-115, March.
    14. Link, Heike & Nilsson, Jan-Eric, 2005. "Infrastructure," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 49-83, January.
    15. Andrew S. J. Smith & Phil Wheat, 2012. "Evaluating Alternative Policy Responses to Franchise Failure: Evidence from the Passenger Rail Sector in Britain," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 46(1), pages 25-49, January.
    16. Campos, Javier & de Rus, Ginés, 2009. "Some stylized facts about high-speed rail: A review of HSR experiences around the world," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 19-28, January.
    17. John Preston, 2009. "Competition for Long Distance Passenger Rail Services: The Emerging Evidence," OECD/ITF Joint Transport Research Centre Discussion Papers 2009/23, OECD Publishing.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cherbonnier, Frédéric & Salant, David & Van Der Straeten, Karine, 2021. "Getting auctions for transportation capacity to roll," TSE Working Papers 21-1254, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    2. Brand, Christina & Sieg, Gernot, 2020. "The impact of delays on the welfare effects of on-track competition: The case of transfer passengers with operator-tied tickets," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    3. Gutiérrez-Hita, Carlos & de la Cruz, Omar & Ramos-Melero, Rodolfo, 2022. "Infrastructure access charges, service differentiation, and strategic competition in the EU railway passenger market," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 87-104.
    4. Florent Laroche & Ayana Lamatkhanova, 2020. "Effects of open access competition on prices and frequencies on the interurban railway market: evidence from Europe," Working Papers halshs-02930864, HAL.
    5. Ristić, Bojan & Stojadinović, Nikola & Trifunović, Dejan, 2022. "Conditions for effective on-track competition in the European passenger railway market: A yardstick for regulations," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 1-15.
    6. Patrice Bougette & Axel Gautier & Frédéric Marty, 2021. "Which access to which assets for an effective liberalization of the railway sector?," Competition and Regulation in Network Industries, , vol. 22(2), pages 87-110, June.
    7. Brand, Christina & Sieg, Gernot, 2022. "An integral interval timetable for long-distance passenger rail services: Time to reconsider targeting on-track competition," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 32(C).
    8. Beria, Paolo & Lunkar, Vardhman & Tolentino, Samuel & Pařil, Vilém & Kvasnička, Michal, 2023. "Long-distance rail in Europe: Comparing the forms of head-on competition across Europe," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    9. Florent Laroche & Ayana Lamatkhanova, 2022. "Effects of open access competition on prices and frequencies on the interurban railway market: evidence from Europe," Post-Print halshs-02930864, HAL.
    10. Ristić Bojan & Trifunović Dejan & Herceg Tomislav, 2021. "Capacity Competition in Differentiated Oligopolies: Entry Deterrence with Alternative Objective Functions," South East European Journal of Economics and Business, Sciendo, vol. 16(1), pages 84-92, June.
    11. Alexander Eisenkopf & Andreas Knorr, 2021. "Ein innovativer Regulierungsansatz zur Belebung des Wettbewerbs im Schienenpersonenfernverkehr [An Innovative Regulatory Approach to Stimulate Competition in Long-Distance Passenger Rail Transport]," Wirtschaftsdienst, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 101(6), pages 446-453, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Álvarez-SanJaime, Óscar & Cantos-Sanchez, Pedro & Moner-Colonques, Rafael & Sempere-Monerris, Jose J., 2020. "Pricing and infrastructure fees in shaping cooperation in a model of high-speed rail and airline competition," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 22-41.
    2. Borsati, Mattia & Albalate, Daniel, 2020. "On the modal shift from motorway to high-speed rail: evidence from Italy," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 145-164.
    3. Zhang, Rui & Johnson, Daniel & Zhao, Weiming & Nash, Chris, 2019. "Competition of airline and high-speed rail in terms of price and frequency: Empirical study from China," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 8-18.
    4. Álvarez-SanJaime, Óscar & Cantos-Sanchez, Pedro & Moner-Colonques, Rafael & Sempere-Monerris, Jose J., 2016. "Rail access charges and internal competition in high speed trains," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 184-195.
    5. Gutiérrez-Hita, Carlos & de la Cruz, Omar & Ramos-Melero, Rodolfo, 2022. "Infrastructure access charges, service differentiation, and strategic competition in the EU railway passenger market," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 87-104.
    6. Florent Laroche & Ayana Lamatkhanova, 2020. "Effects of open access competition on prices and frequencies on the interurban railway market: evidence from Europe," Working Papers halshs-02930864, HAL.
    7. Feuerstein, Lisa & Busacker, Torsten & Xu, Jingjing, 2018. "Factors influencing open access competition in the European long-distance passenger rail transport — A Delphi study," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 300-309.
    8. Brand, Christina & Sieg, Gernot, 2022. "An integral interval timetable for long-distance passenger rail services: Time to reconsider targeting on-track competition," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 32(C).
    9. Beria, Paolo & Lunkar, Vardhman & Tolentino, Samuel & Pařil, Vilém & Kvasnička, Michal, 2023. "Long-distance rail in Europe: Comparing the forms of head-on competition across Europe," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    10. Laroche, Florent, 2024. "Goodbye monopoly: The effect of open access passenger rail competition on price and frequency in France on the high-speed paris-Lyon line," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 12-21.
    11. Bergantino, Angela Stefania & Madio, Leonardo, 2020. "Intermodal competition and substitution. HSR versus air transport: Understanding the socio-economic determinants of modal choice," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    12. D’Alfonso, Tiziana & Jiang, Changmin & Bracaglia, Valentina, 2016. "Air transport and high-speed rail competition: Environmental implications and mitigation strategies," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 261-276.
    13. Vigren, Andreas, 2016. "Competition in Swedish passenger railway : entry in an open-access market," Working papers in Transport Economics 2016:18, CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI).
    14. Angela S. Bergantino & Claudia Capozza & Mauro Capurso, 2018. "Pricing strategies: who leads and who follows in the air and rail passenger markets in Italy," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(46), pages 4937-4953, October.
    15. Capozza, Claudia, 2016. "The effect of rail travel time on airline fares: First evidence from the Italian passenger market," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 6(C), pages 18-24.
    16. Christiane Warnecke & Georg Goetz, 2012. "Offener Marktzugang im europäischen Schienenpersonenverkehr: Erfahrungen aus der Wettbewerbsentwicklung," Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung / Quarterly Journal of Economic Research, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 81(1), pages 111-130.
    17. Brand, Christina & Sieg, Gernot, 2020. "The impact of delays on the welfare effects of on-track competition: The case of transfer passengers with operator-tied tickets," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    18. Mancuso, Paolo, 2014. "An analysis of the competition that impinges on the Milan–Rome intercity passenger transport link," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 42-52.
    19. Alexander Eisenkopf & Andreas Knorr, 2021. "Ein innovativer Regulierungsansatz zur Belebung des Wettbewerbs im Schienenpersonenfernverkehr [An Innovative Regulatory Approach to Stimulate Competition in Long-Distance Passenger Rail Transport]," Wirtschaftsdienst, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 101(6), pages 446-453, June.
    20. Paha, Johannes & Rompf, Dirk & Warnecke, Christiane, 2013. "Customer choice patterns in passenger rail competition," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 209-227.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Intermodal competition; Oligopoly model; Open access;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • L90 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - General
    • R40 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:tse:wpaper:32558. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/tsetofr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.