Abstract
Greenhouse gas emissions, acidification, and the dispersion of particles are negative side effects of railways that have received notable attention in Europe but are seldom considered in performance evaluations. The objective of this work was to assess the efficiency of European railways involved in the commitment signed by the international railway association (UIC) and The community of European railway and infrastructure companies (CER), considering the action of 14 rail companies to reduce negative externalities. Data envelopment analysis was applied under the framework of a slacks-based measure and the technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution to account for undesirable outputs and ensure unique rankings. Three different measures were considered: two ordinary energy efficiency models, with and without environmental restrictions, which are input–output ratios, and the eco-efficiency, which is an economic performance-to-environmental impacts ratio. The first two models were found to be similar to each other but different to the eco-efficiency, as a high ordinary efficiency ranking generally is not equivalent to high eco-efficiency. The results indicate that the average performance of the firms is low, but with a considerable temporal growth which is driven by environmental factors. Several policy-making implications are addressed to assist railway efficiency improvements and avoid anomalies in environmental performance evaluations. This data envelopment analysis application is the first to incorporate several air pollutants in railway efficiency assessment.
Graphical abstract
Time-series evolution of the efficiency scores for railway companies involved in the UIC-CER commitment during 2011–2019.
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Source: Own elaboration, based on the UIC data
Source: Own elaboration, based on the UIC data
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Data availability
All variables assigned to the railway operator's efficiency model, as well as the measurement criteria for the relevant data, were collected from the International Union of Railways (UIC) database (https://uic-stats.uic.org/). The railways’ environmental performance database was also provided by the UIC.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Arsen Benga, María Jesús Delgado and Sonia de Lucas. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Arsen Benga and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Benga, A., Delgado-Rodríguez, M.J. & De Lucas-Santos, S. Energy–environment efficiency analysis of railway transport: is Europe moving towards sustainable mobility?. Clean Techn Environ Policy 25, 105–124 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-022-02390-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-022-02390-2