Road Type Determines the Cost of Heavy Traffic

What does it actually cost when heavy vehicles use the road network? New research shows that the answer largely depends on the type of road in question. On some roads, the cost is almost 17 times higher than on others — something that could have major implications for future road pricing.

Road and rail infrastructure are essential, but costly to maintain. In Sweden, public expenditure on operation, maintenance and reinvestment in roads and railways exceeded three billion euros in 2024. At the same time, there is a clear political ambition for transport charges to reflect the actual costs generated by traffic.

In a new licentiate thesis, Ajsuna Ragipi Rushid has analysed so-called marginal costs in road and rail transport. Marginal cost refers to the additional cost that arises when one extra vehicle uses the infrastructure, for example when a heavy goods vehicle travels one kilometre on the road network. The focus is on the wear and tear caused by each additional vehicle.

Two of the studies in the thesis concern roads and show that these marginal costs vary greatly between different types of road. On motorways, the total marginal cost of wear amounts to around €0.03 per truck-kilometre. On lower-standard roads, the corresponding cost is approximately €0.51.

Lower-standard roads refer to those with simpler construction and lower load-bearing capacity than motorways and other high-standard routes. They are not designed to accommodate the same volume of heavy traffic and are therefore more sensitive to deterioration. As a result, an additional heavy vehicle causes significantly more wear on these roads.

“The results show that the same heavy goods vehicle can generate very different costs depending on where it is driven. This means that future distance-based road charges for heavy vehicles may need to take greater account of where wear actually occurs,” says Ajsuna Ragipi Rushid.

The third study in the thesis focuses on railways and analyses how track access charges affect ticket prices and service frequency on the Stockholm–Gothenburg route. The findings show that higher track charges mainly affect how frequently trains run, while ticket prices change relatively little. Train operators can also adapt by running longer trains with more carriages.

The limited impact on ticket prices is largely due to competition from other modes of transport, such as cars and air travel.

“It is often assumed that higher track access charges always lead to higher prices for passengers. However, the study shows that operators instead adjust  train frequencies rather than ticket pricessays Ajsuna Ragipi Rushid.

Overall, the thesis demonstrates that marginal cost-based pricing of infrastructure requires detailed knowledge of where costs arise, as well as an understanding of how train operators respond to charges. This becomes particularly important as electrification of road transport reduces revenues from traditional fuel taxes, which will eventually need to be replaced by other forms of charging.

Facts about the Thesis

Summary