Cost calculation, its theory and practice has always been an ardently discussed question within the Hungarian State Railways (HSR). Before the political system change, an aggregate-cost-approach was used to determine the costs of a single freight shipment. With the applied coefficients announced by the Ministry of Transport, the price calculation for the railway company resulted in very strongly diversified prices: transit traffic was invoiced for more time higher prices than inland traffic. Therewith, a very heavy cross-subsidisation was discernible between passenger- and freight transport or, indeed between the several types of freight transport. This led to a quite ambiguous situation within the railway's accounting processes. In this case a serious redistribution of the transport demand (starting with the political system change) and as a result of this - a new and undesired modal split for the railways resulted in a desperate decline of railway's transport activity. Under these circumstances, the HSR is searching for adequate solutions and pricing policies that can (at least) provide better cost coverage of its activity. This paper proposes a new cost calculation scheme which can be used as an alternative for small and medium-size railway companies. There are many specialities of accession countries incorporated both in the method and in the annotation, this can be beneficial for experts focussing on this region. Furthermore, the paper can help for theoretical economists to proceed with the debate around the usage of marginal costs in the transport sector. For the covering abstract see ITRD E126595.
Abstract