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Trouble in open access paradise?
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[quote user="marcimmeker"] <P>How I missed these discussions during my weeklong stay on Helgoland!</P> <P>Well, back to the subject.</P> <P>If I remember correctly Britain (and Sweden) were in the forefront of privatisation / open access.</P> <P>They had to figure out a lot of things and the other EU countries are all learning and doing things slightly different (or not for as long as possible). We all love these EU directives that tell us to go there and then let each of us to figure out how to get there from here.</P> <P>Now, about slot bidding. Let me see if I understand this thing that is supposed to be wonderfull.</P> <P>Take the Netherlands, I know somthing about its railway system of about 3000 km's as I travel a lot on it because I don't have a drivers license (deliberately too). There are 5000 trains a day and 1 million passengers per (work)day. The country has 16.3 million inhabitants.</P> <P>Let us focus on the city of Amersfoort, located to the east of Amsterdam. It is the northeast corner of an area we call Randstad Holland (were half the population lives on 20 % of the land, with a big empty hole in the middle too). It is a major junction for railtraffic from the (south)west to the east and north of the country. The intercity services that cross here are a major part of the railsystem and can reasonably isolated from other services.</P> <P>Basic intercity service is on the hour a train from Amsterdam to Enschede to the east ans across the platform a train from Rotterdam and The Hague by way of Utrecht to the north (Zwolle and then on to Groningen and Leewarden). About half the people onboard the trains change trains across the platform or get off. A half hour later the pattern is Amsterdam to the north and Rotterdam / The Hague / Utrecht to Enschede.</P> <P>So FM, how can we use the system of slot bidding on these trains?</P> <P>Do we put out for bidding only the trains from Amsterdam to Enschede? And then Rotterdam/The Hague/ Utrecht to Zwolle/Groningen/Leeuwarden on another bid?</P> <P>Or do we put out for bidding the service on the hour on one contract and the service on the half hour on another?</P> <P>Or do you have better solutions?</P> <P>Sincerely waiting for your reply,</P> <P>Marc Immeker[/quote]</P> <P>Marc,</P> <P>First question: Do these trains make an actual profit or not, e.g. do they take in more revenue than what they get in subsidy and road tax manipulation?</P> <P>Second question: Is it possible for current changeover areas to be converted to run through trains, e.g. keep the patrons on one train from origin to destination?</P> <P>Third question: How much cross border train traffic is there, both passenger and freight?</P> <P>Fourth question: If something happened to change the current status quo, in that patrons shifted to other modes for their travel needs, how hard would it be for such patrons to make that adjustment?</P>
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