The Stock-Service Productivity of the European Transport Infrastructure

Abstract

Using the European transport sector as a case study, we quantify the mass of materials composing the transport infrastructure and analyze the interactions between in-use stocks and service provision through the stock-service productivity indicator. We also assess the primary factors driving stock-service productivity changes and explore feasible ways to improve productivity. To do so, we decompose changes in stock-service productivity to the effects of transport intensity, affluence, population density, road density, and material stock efficiency at regional and national levels based on the Log-Mean Divisia Index method. The results indicate that (1) the productivity of the materials stocked in the European road infrastructure increased from 51 to 57 freight-kilometers/ton-year during the 2010–2019 period; (2) freight transport intensity and affluence were the dominant driving factors in both regional and national scales, while population density, road density and material efficiency played smaller roles.

Keywords: in-use material stocks, transport sector, stock-service productivity, road networks, socio-economic factors, stock-service relation