Efficiency Components Analysis of Regional Rail Passenger Transportation; Using DEA Model

Public ground transportation is one of the sectors that has a major impact on economic activity¡ such as increased efficiency in othe sectors and related activities. In this context¡ the knowledge of transportation economy¡ is trying to make the best use of transport facilities to meet the need to provide a definite shift in time and place. The main objective of the study was to analyse the components efficiency of regional rail-passenger transportation in 14 regions of Iran for the years 2007-2009. For this purpose data envelopment analysis (DEA) was used to measure technical¡ managerial and scale efficiency in terms of constant returns to scale production attributable to Charns¡ Cooper¡ Rhodes (CCR) and variable returns to scale in terms of production attributable to Bnker¡ Charns¡ Cooper (BCC).On the basis of results¡ inefficiency levels in rail-passenger transportation section are 0/44¡ 0/42 and 0/38 respectively during 2007-2009. The results showed that the average performance of the estimated components including technical¡ managerial and scale efficiency in rail-passenger transportation were 0/59¡ 0/65 and 0/85 respectively during the period of study. Therefore it is suggested that the rail passenger transport sector should increase its output potential level by 41 percent. The main reason behind the presence of weak performance in the sector could be attributed to old and frustrated rail way infrastructures and limited rail transport navigation system that causes waste of energy in the industry.