Use a Time Slot Method for Train Travel

News comes today about First Great Western agreeing to a remedial plan to, well, operate a dependable train service. Rail franchises create a government granted monopoly on a rail line in exchange for meeting certain conditions. It is how the UK government decide to privatise rail travel.

I think rail franchises are the wrong way to organise the delivery of train services. Instead rail lines should be divided into time slots that a company bid for. Obviously lucrative spots would be bid higher and less lucrative spots would be less expensive. The idea is to create system like landing slots at airports. This would allow various train companies to compete on the same line which would drive prices lower and also increase the number of services.

Part of rail franchises sometimes includes revamping railway stations. This could still be done using with time slots by directing the money from the auction of the slots into track and station improvements and/or also charge a "standing fee" for each train.

Monopolies are a bad way to deliver a service. Competition will do more to improve train service particularly if the slots are auction for periods of between 1 to 5 years and any single company cannot by two (three?) consecutive slots so that a user has a choice of waiting for the next train.

The main hurdle to slot base method is the management of arrivals. Systems will need to be in place for dealing with late trains - perhaps by moving them off into holding points until a slot is free.

Tags: Rail Franchise, Rail, UK, Transport

The Sustainable Economy and Economies of Scale

In much of the discussion on sustainable economy has been focused around energy and carbon. One aspect I find missing from the debate is how the wider shift to sustainable development will effect the fundamentals of economic development that have been the guiding forces since the time of the industrial revolution.

One key economic concept is Economies of Scale. Essentially, building lots of things in one place in order to produce each individual thing cheaper. One of the key determinates of economies of scale is transport costs. The shift to sustainable economy is going to bring in what is currently an externality (carbon) to the equation that determines the economies of scale. As carbon is priced into transport (and to the price of energy) building widgets in massive factory in China (for example) and shipping it to the rest of the world is going to loose economy.

The reduction in the economies of scale will see two major effects. The first is a shift to more factories building the same product as opposed to one big factory shipping to the world. These smaller factories will serve a particular region. The size of the region that the factory supplies will be determined by transport costs. The second shift is that many economies will see a broadening of the manufacturing base. There is likely to be a growth in both the number of jobs in manufacturing and also the diversity of manufacturing operations.

Not only will carbon transport costs effect the location of factories but so will access to low carbon energy. In effect, countries with good internal and regional transport links that are not carbon intensive and have ready access to low carbon energy will greatly benefit from the shift to a sustainable economy. Which leads to the conclusion that China is likely to see its global dominance of manufacturing eroded if it is unable to reduce the carbon intensiveness of is energy and transport. It is China's self interest to reduce the carbon intensiveness of its economy now.

Transport in Sydney

I've just returned from Christmas in Australia. Starkest difference between London and Sydney was how hard it is to get around Sydney by public transport. Not having a car in Sydney is a significant obstacle to enjoying Sydney.

This only serves to highlight how (relatively) good London's public transport network is. This is not to say that there isn't room for improvement, there certainly is. But the cost of improving London transport is dwarfed by what Sydney needs, nay must, spend to get a decent public transport network.

Unfortunetly for Sydney, public transport is the single biggest hurdle to further development, increased tourism and maintaining its status as a liveable city (which is already rapid falling).