Client: Elektriraudtee
Period: 2008
The aim of the project was to assess the costs and benefits of renewing the rolling stock of Elektriraudtee (passenger transport service provider in capital region).
Three scenarios were analysed:
S0 – old electric trains will be replaced with busses;
S1 – old electric trains will be replaced with new ones;
S2 – old electric trains will be replaced with new diesel trains.
The results show that in scenarios S1 and S2 the project is not financially beneficial for Elektriraudtee AS, but socio-economic benefits resulting from improved travel time and lower external costs overweight the costs, making the investment beneficial for society as a whole. When comparing S1 to S2 , electric trains should be preferred to diesel trains – despite higher C02 emissions in electricity production (in Estonia electricity is mainly produced from oil shale), the total costs of air pollution are still lower for electric trains due to reduced air pollution in urban areas. Also – due to faster acceleration, electric trains provide higher gains from reduced travel time.
The project was funded from the Cohesion Fund.
The analysis was commissioned by Elektriraudtee AS.