Analysis of the operational performance of European urban rail transport networks: production efficiency and effectiveness

Abstract

This paper focuses on the analysis of the operational performance of a number of Europeanmetro systems by adopting a production function approach. To begin with, this studyanalyses the estimate of the inputs elasticities of the optimal production function. Next, itstudies the efficiency and effectiveness levels of each company, by analysing servicesupplied and demand characterizing indicators, respectively. For these two purposes,stochastic production frontier models have been applied. Due to the fact that productioneffectiveness is influenced by the social-economic environment of the urban areas on whichthe metro systems operate, the influence of these external effects on effectiveness isestimated by regressing the effectiveness results on external variables. In addition, internaleffects on effectiveness are evaluated.