[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/retrec/v69y2018icp187-196.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The wheels keep on turning: Is the end of rail franchising in Britain in sight?

Author

Listed:
  • Preston, John
Abstract
The regime of passenger rail franchising in Britain has been in place for over 20 years. The developments have been reported at past Thredbo Conferences, including by the author in 2007 and 2015. The franchising regime has been remarkably resilient and has been through at least five phases. Using the concept of regulatory cycles, this paper reviews the prospects for a sixth and possibly final phase.

Suggested Citation

  • Preston, John, 2018. "The wheels keep on turning: Is the end of rail franchising in Britain in sight?," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 187-196.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:retrec:v:69:y:2018:i:c:p:187-196
    DOI: 10.1016/j.retrec.2018.04.005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0739885917302408
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.retrec.2018.04.005?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:hal:pseose:halshs-00754578 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Louis Thompson, 2003. "Changing railway structure and ownership: Is anything working?," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(3), pages 311-355.
    3. Ian Taylor & Lynn Sloman, 2013. "Reunifying Britain's railways: obstacles and opportunities," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(5), pages 329-336, September.
    4. Robert Jupe, 2010. "A model or a policy muddle? An evaluation of rail franchising in the UK," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(6), pages 347-354, November.
    5. Michael G. Pollitt & Andrew S. J. Smith, 2002. "The restructuring and privatisation of British Rail: was it really that bad?," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 23(4), pages 463-502, December.
    6. 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.
    7. Beria, Paolo & Quinet, Emile & de Rus, Gines & Schulz, Carola, 2012. "A comparison of rail liberalisation levels across four European countries," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 110-120.
    8. Gourvish, Terry, 2008. "Britain's Railway, 1997-2005: Labour's Strategic Experiment," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199236602.
    9. Chris Nash & Jan-Eric Nilsson & Heike Link, 2013. "Comparing Three Models for Introduction of Competition into Railways," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 47(2), pages 191-206, May.
    10. Simon Domberger & Stephen Rimmer, 1994. "Competitive Tendering and Contracting in the Public Sector: A Survey," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 1(3), pages 439-453.
    11. Link, Heike, 2016. "A Two-Stage Efficiency Analysis of Rail Passenger Franchising in Germany," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 50(1), pages 76-92.
    12. Fumitoshi Mizutani & Andrew Smith & Chris Nash & Shuji Uranishi, 2015. "Comparing the Costs of Vertical Separation, Integration, and Intermediate Organisational Structures in European and East Asian Railways," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 49(3), pages 496-515, July.
    13. Robert B. Wilson, 2021. "Strategic Analysis of Auctions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 89(2), pages 555-561, March.
    14. Preston, John & Almutairi, Talal, 2013. "Evaluating the long term impacts of transport policy: An initial assessment of bus deregulation," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 208-214.
    15. Preston, John & Robins, Dawn, 2013. "Evaluating the long term impacts of transport policy: The case of passenger rail privatisation," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 14-20.
    16. Heike Link, 2016. "A Two-stage Efficiency Analysis of Rail Passenger Franchising in Germany," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 50(1), pages 76-92, January.
    17. Jonathan Cowie, 2009. "The British Passenger Rail Privatisation: Conclusions on Subsidy and Efficiency from the First Round of Franchises," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 43(1), pages 85-104, January.
    18. Andrew Smith & Phill Wheat, 2012. "Estimation of cost inefficiency in panel data models with firm specific and sub-company specific effects," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 37(1), pages 27-40, February.
    19. Preston, John, 2008. "A review of passenger rail franchising in Britain: 1996/1997-2006/2007," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 71-77, January.
    20. McAfee, R Preston & McMillan, John, 1987. "Auctions and Bidding," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 25(2), pages 699-738, June.
    21. Gwilliam, Ken, 2008. "Bus transport: Is there a regulatory cycle?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 42(9), pages 1183-1194, November.
    22. Robert Jupe, 2013. "New development: Going off the rails? Rail franchising after the cancellation of the West Coast franchise competition," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(5), pages 337-341, September.
    23. Gourvish, Terry, 2002. "British Rail 1974-1997: From Integration to Privatisation," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199250059.
    24. Sean McCartney & John Stittle, 2011. "‘Carry on up the east coast’— a case study in railway franchising," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(2), pages 123-130, March.
    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. Preston, John & Bickel, Charles, 2020. "And the beat goes on. The continued trials and tribulations of passenger rail franchising in Great Britain," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    2. Preston, John, 2023. "All things must pass? Recent changes to competition and ownership in public transport in Great Britain," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).

    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. Preston, John & Bickel, Charles, 2020. "And the beat goes on. The continued trials and tribulations of passenger rail franchising in Great Britain," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    2. Mizutani, Fumitoshi & Uranishi, Shuji, 2020. "An analysis of the inter-effect of structural reforms and rail mode share," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    3. Preston, John, 2023. "All things must pass? Recent changes to competition and ownership in public transport in Great Britain," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    4. Li, Hongchang & Yu, Kemei & Wang, Kun & Zhang, Anming, 2019. "Market power and its determinants in the Chinese railway industry," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 261-276.
    5. Link, Heike, 2019. "The impact of including service quality into efficiency analysis: The case of franchising regional rail passenger serves in Germany," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 284-300.
    6. Quiroz Flores, Alejandro & Pfaff, Katharina, 2021. "Private provision of public goods and political survival: Rail transport in four European democracies in the 20th century," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    7. Preston, John, 2016. "Deja Vu all over again? Rail franchising in Britain," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 107-115.
    8. Fröidh, Oskar & Nelldal, Bo-Lennart, 2015. "The impact of market opening on the supply of interregional train services," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 189-200.
    9. Tomeš, Zdeněk & Kvizda, Martin & Nigrin, Tomáš & Seidenglanz, Daniel, 2014. "Competition in the railway passenger market in the Czech Republic," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 270-276.
    10. McTigue, Clare & Monios, Jason & Rye, Tom, 2020. "The principal-agent problem in contracting public transport provision to private operators: A case study of the UK Quality Contract Scheme," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    11. Álvaro Costa & Carlos Oliveira Cruz & Joaquim Miranda Sarmento & Vitor Faria Sousa, 2021. "Empirical Analysis of the Effects of Ownership Model (Public vs. Private) on the Efficiency of Urban Rail Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-14, December.
    12. Smith, Andrew S.J. & Wheat, Phill E. & Nash, Chris A., 2010. "Exploring the effects of passenger rail franchising in Britain: Evidence from the first two rounds of franchising (1997-2008)," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 72-79.
    13. José A. Gómez-Ibáñez, 2016. "Open Access to Infrastructure Networks: The Experience of Railroads," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 49(2), pages 311-345, September.
    14. Nash, Chris & Smith, Andrew, 2020. "Public transport procurement in Britain," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    15. Preston, John & Robins, Dawn, 2013. "Evaluating the long term impacts of transport policy: The case of passenger rail privatisation," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 14-20.
    16. McCartney, Sean & Stittle, John, 2012. "‘Engines of Extravagance’: The privatised British railway rolling stock industry," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 153-167.
    17. McCartney, S. & Stittle, J., 2017. "‘A Very Costly Industry’: The cost of Britain’s privatised railway," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 1-17.
    18. Lerida-Navarro, Carlos & Nombela, Gustavo & Tranchez-Martin, Jose M., 2019. "European railways: Liberalization and productive efficiency," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 57-67.
    19. Rye, Tom & Hrelja, Robert & Monios, Jason & McTigue, Clare, 2021. "Partnership or franchising to improve bus services in two major English urban regions? An institutional analysis," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 59-67.
    20. Florent Laroche & Ayana Lamatkhanova, 2020. "Exploring effects of competitive tender for users in the regional railway market: evidence from Europe," Working Papers halshs-02930832, HAL.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Rail; Franchising; Contract; Incentives;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation
    • L92 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Railroads and Other Surface Transportation

    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:eee:retrec:v:69:y:2018:i:c:p:187-196. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/620614/description#description .

    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.