Research On The Problems Of Costing And Pricing Of The Infrastructure Of Our Railway

The railway, which is highly networked, is the main form of transportation for passengers and freights in our national economy and social life. It is common for our railways that a great number of passenger trains and freight cars are moving on the same rails, or on the other rails not belonging to the enterprises of the running trains. This generates the very important economic problems dealt with the compensation and the charges for the use of rail infrastructures. For a long period, our national railways have been in the government-enterprise combined status accompanied by highly controlled management system. The whole national railways are one enterprise and calculate the operating benefit or loss in one account. In this situation it is unnecessary and unimportant for the train-operating enterprises to make the compensation and independent charging for the rail infrastructure. As our socialist marketing economy are further developed and the multi-independent railway operating entities are gradually formed, the separate creating of independent financial accounts among the passenger, freight operating companies and the infrastructure enterprises will make it more remarkable the infrastructure costing and charging. And it is also one of the necessary and fundamental economic problems for our railways marching on the way to the marketing.The dissertation analyses the theories and practices in the costing, tariffs and infrastructure costing and charging among our and other railways, and points out the shortcomings and causes, makes further thoughts and experiences. Based on the deep study on the marketing characteristics of the infrastructure, the identities of the infrastructure cost and price, those have been produced which are the proper theories, manners, programs and modes of its costing and charging, which are fitted to the current situation of our railways. The thesis has also studied the railway legislation costing, the capital costing, and their effects on the charging. On investigating and gathering large quantity of operating and accounting data, those concrete infrastructure charges have been calculated, and also the comparisons have been worked with the current manners and data. Some systematic opinions are raised in the formulation of our railway infrastructure charges.The outstanding conclusions are given. The infrastructure supplies public product or service for the whole, and the infrastructure cost is public cost. According to the current and not too far railway market situation and management system, our infrastructure and its charges are of monopoly. The charging should be worked out or monitored by the government. The formulations of our railway infrastructure charges are closely related with our railway tariffs, the management system of our railway and railway infrastructure, and also are influenced by the market situation of the supply of our infrastructure and demand for it. It is the most effective and efficient way to make the charges by the system of the cost-added manner on the average costs all over the railway infrastructure, and based on the combination of the cost-direction and governmental pricing theory. Just for the situation that the passenger and the freight operation are running commonly on the same rails, it is necessary to determine the separate charges for the passenger and the freight operations in the same way. It is improper and unreasonable to determine the charges of the different class trains according to their earning ability. And it should be done according to the value consumed to or occupied on the infrastructure resources, for instance, according to the different time period occupied in a day to fix the different charges for the passenger trains.At the end of the dissertation, a series of further studying aspects are pointed out.