Economic and Finance
Introduction

Railway transport is a subsector of the wider transport industry so it shares many key economic features with other transport modes. This chapter identifies common features, and notes characteristics that are unique to railways. It will explain the fundamental drivers of railway financial sustainability and the tools used to analyze it. A railway achieves financial sustainability when it has sufficient longer-term financial resources to cover operational costs, to invest, and to meet debt service and other financing requirements. The concepts of financial sustainability explained here apply to all types of railway operations. Where appropriate, the particular features of passenger, freight, infrastructure on integrated railway operations are discussed.

    
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