Bulleravgift för järnvägsoperatörer : prissättning enligt marginalkostnadsprinciper

• The Swedish Parliament has decided that, in order to mitigate externalities in railway infrastructure, operators in the Swedish railway infrastructure shall pay charges based on short-run marginal social costs. Internalization of the social cost from noise is of particular interest, since it is the only environmental problem which people perceive as more troublesome today than they did in the early 1990s. Inclusion of a noise component in rail infrastructure charges raises two problems: (i) the monetary evaluation of noise abatement, since noise is a non-marketed good, and (ii) the estimation of the effect on the noise level that one extra train will create. We are interested in the marginal noise, since infrastructure charges based on the short-run marginal cost principle should be based on the effect from the marginal train, not the noise level itself. We show in this study that, based on already obtained knowledge, it is possible to implement a noise component in the rail infrastructure charges. Those values that already today are used to estimate the social cost from noise exposure (which in Sweden are based on noise from road-traffic) in cost benefit analysis can also be used to calculate the marginal cost. We recommend, however, that further research is carried out in order to get more robust estimates and to get estimates based on railway traffic. We also show that the existing noise estimation models can easily be modified to estimate the marginal noise. Noise infrastructure charges give the operators incentives to reduce their noise emissions. We believe that this kind of charges can be used to reduce overall emission levels to an optimal social level, but that it is important that these charges are based on monetary estimates for rail-traffic and not road-traffic.

Nyckelord

Noise control

Noise

Tariff

External effect

Cost

Calculation

Value analysis

Mathematical model

Rail traffic

Railway: Environment

Railway: Environment

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

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