The application of ABC can also be used to control working costs, which are important in rail companies and for planning the transport. This point leads us to another fundamental aim that the adoption of the ABC methodology has allowed the company to achieve: measuring and governing the levels of performance of the service provision process. In railway companies, the process of transport provision represents the product itself; consequently, the analysis of the activities that constitute it, their sequence, and their responsibility must take on the same importance and receive the same attention as the physical and functional characteristics of a physical product in an industrial company.
By analysing the ways in which the activities of the production process are carried out, it is possible to measure their performance (quality and time taken) in order to identify opportunities for improving it. For each activity, it is necessary to have the information (though not necessarily in terms of money) that, by explaining the cause of their execution (cost drivers) and the quality of standards reached (performance measures), can indicate how much efficiency and effectiveness the activity provides for the production process. For example, maintenance activities can be analysed other than in terms of costs, such as by the number of man hours needed, the number of repairs carried out, the number of vehicles repaired, and so on.
The ABC methodology, together with the cost destinations, links the costs of a rail company to the individual parts of the infrastructure and combines the cost information to the physical‐technical information, all of which is useful for managing the capacity of the production process and the infrastructure. Thus, the accounting system proposed should be able to support the information needs that arise in the process of liberalisation better than traditional systems can because it allows the resources used by RTOs and RIOs to be distinguished.
Finally, the case study sheds light on the role of accountants in developing the appropriate systems that can capture the specific features and needs of companies that operate with an infrastructure network. Our evidence encourages researchers to investigate how accounting practices can improve accountants’ ability to respond to the specific information needs of management.