ONCE AGAIN, THE COSTS OF URBAN RAPID TRANSIT

P A. Viton

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

1993

Subject Area

place - urban, mode - rail

Keywords

Urban transit, Transportation industry, Transportation economics, Transportation, Transport economics, Transport, Rapid transit economics, Rapid transit, Marginal costs, Heavy rail transit, Economics, Economic factors

Abstract

This paper re-examines the question of short-run economies in the provision of rapid-rail transit. In order to satisfy the theoretical requisite that all observations show costs no less than the theoretical minimum implied by a cost function, the author estimates here a frontier cost function. The results indicate decreasing returns for all properties in the sample, a change from previous results. There appears to be only a small amount of technical inefficiency in the industry. The author also discusses the implications for marginal-cost pricing of these services in the absence of externalities.

Comments

Transportation Research Part B Home Page: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01912615

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