Railway investments are different from most other transport investments in that its use is often planned and decided by society to a large extent,through capacity allocation,regulations,track access charges,subsidies,public transport provision,etc.,and by commercial operators,who strive to maximize profits, often with some monopolistic power.This stands in contrast to most other transport investments,such as roads or bicycle paths,where the use of the physical infrastructure is mainly decided by individual decisions made by large numbers of travelers .Which timetable
principle is most appropriate to use in an appraisal will depend on the institutional setting – which stakeholders decide the use of the railway in question and their incentives,goal sand constraints,and how potential conflicts between stakeholders are resolved.Hence,this paper cannot prescribe what principle should govern the construction of appraisal timetables.The purpose is merely to describe the problem,illustrate its potential consequences,and discuss some principles which maybe appropriate.There is a multitude of possible institutional settings,and in this paper we only illustrate a few examples.The in sight is quite general,however,and occurs in any institutional setting.However,it is likely to be especially problematic when the responsibilities for financing investments,capacity allocation and running the trains are separated between different stakeholders.