This paper uses a social cost-benefit analysis (SCBA) framework to assess whether rail privatisation in Britain has produced savings in operating costs. The paper shows that major efficiencies have been achieved, consumers have benefited through lower prices, whilst the increased government subsidy has been largely recouped through privatisation proceeds. We also find that output quality is no lower (and is probably better) than under the counterfactual scenario of public ownership (pre-Hatfield). The achievement of further savings is key to delivering improved rail services in the future. This paper finds that a privatised structure, where shareholders demand a return on their investment, has led to significant improvements in operating efficiency -it remains to be seen whether the new regime, with a not-for-profit infrastructure owner, will deliver the same efficiency improvements.JEL classification: H43, L92. * Pollitt and Smith are both at the Judge Institute of Management, University of Cambridge. Smith is funded by the Railtrack Studentship in Rail Regulation. The authors wish to thank Luisa Affuso for kindly sharing data with us (data which was generated during a rail research project sponsored by the ESRCgrant number: R000237928). The authors also acknowledge comments from David Newbery, Luisa Affuso, Stephen Gibson and two anonymous referees. All remaining errors are the responsibility of the authors. I: IntroductionOver the period 1994-1997 the British railway industry was fundamentally transformed.In 1994 the industry was in the hands of a single, vertically-integrated operator -British Rail -owned by the government. By 1997, BR's activities had been transferred to the private sector. In the process, the industry was restructured into more than one hundred companies, thereby removing much of the vertical and horizontal integration of the preprivatisation structure.Since its reorganisation, and subsequent transfer to the private sector, the rail industry's outputs have grown sharply. Between 1992/93 (the last year before restructuring began 1 ) and 1999/00, passenger miles and freight tonne-miles grew by 21%and 19% respectively, whilst train miles were also up significantly (passenger train miles grew by 13% over the period). During this same period, total industry operating costs 2 fell by nearly 6%, suggesting that significant efficiency improvements have been made.However, the privatisation of British Rail has been the subject of much criticism in recent years, particularly in the aftermath of the Hatfield accident 3 . In October 2001 the Government announced that it had decided to put Railtrack into administration -with the company to be replaced by a not-for-profit company, limited by guarantee. Railtrack's finances had been crippled by the cost of Hatfield, and cost over-runs on the West Coast Main Line project 4 .1 See Section III.2 (a). 2 Operating costs (excluding depreciation). 3 A train derailment resulting from defective track, which resulted in four people being killed. 4 The ren...

Purpose/Objective(s): Liver transplant, the gold standard treatment for most Hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC), was till recently not being considered as an option in patients having portal vein tumor thrombus (PVTT). These patients were offered only palliative treatments like Radio frequency ablation (RFA), Trans-arterial chemo-embolization (TACE) and conventional external beam radiation therapy (EBRT). With advent of SBRT, precise targeting and motion management has improved local control, making it possible to offer curative liver transplant post SBRT (Stereotactic Body Radiation therapy) to these cases where transplant was ruled out in the past. Materials/Methods: We present 48 of our cases, initially considered unfit for transplant and referred for SBRT to PVTT alone or with HCC lesion from April 2011 till November 2015. Adequate respiratory motion management with either deep inspiratory breath hold (DIBH) or synchrony respiratory tracking was used in all cases. Post SBRT, cases were assessed at 4, 8 and 12 weeks for transplant feasibility. Plan details and follow up data was analyzed with primary end point as amenability to liver transplant. Results: Intent of treatment was curative in 32 (66.6%) cases with limited disease and palliative in remaining 16 (33.3%) cases. Of all the cases, 38 (79%) had multi centric disease and 34 cases (70.8%) had received alternative multimodality treatment in past, before SBRT. Based on Japan cancer group classification 12.5% (n Z 6), 25% (n Z 12), 22.9% (n Z 11) and 39.5% (n Z 19) cases had Vp1, Vp2, Vp3 and Vp4 type PVTT, respectively. Twenty cases (42%) were treated on robotic radiosurgery and 28 cases (58%) on Linac with DIBH. Most frequent dose fractionation used was 60 Gy (range 25 -60 Gy) in 5 fractions (range 3-20 fr). Treatment was well tolerated with mild nausea and fatigue being the most common side effect with no RTOG grade 3 or more toxicity reported. At the time of analyses, amongst 32 curative cases, 23 (71.9%) were alive while 6 (18.8%) had expired and 3 (9.3%) were lost to follow up. Eleven (34.3% of 32 curative) cases underwent successful transplant, 2-3 months post SBRT while 5 (15.6%) are awaiting response assessment. Remaining 2 (6.2%) cases are living with stable disease and 5 (15.6%) with systemic progression. Amongst 16 palliative cases, 7 (43.75%) were still alive, 4 cases (25%) lost to follow up and 5 (31.25%) had expired. Median survival was 13 months in all 48 cases and 26 months (range 8-46 months) for transplant cases. Conclusion: Presence of PVTT is no longer considered a contraindication to liver transplant. Adequately selected cases can be offered SBRT as single modality or as a part of multimodality regime. With growing data from well-designed future studies, PVTT-SBRT promises to improve outcomes in selected HCC cases by making them amenable to liver transplant. SBRT-PVTT therefore merits attention for its potential as an integral part of multidisciplinary treatment approach towards inoperable HCC, realizing the unmet need of adequate local c...

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The aviation industry worldwide has a reputation for being a major polluter. This paper examines the ways in which airports address the issue of the environment through examining both the problems and the strategies adopted in disposal. The paper concludes that a more co‐ordinated approach to environmental strategy is needed across the industry and that this is best produced at government level.

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