All change | Features

How do we compare with Europe?
(% above EU average)
Sweden	41
UK	18
Denmark	16
Ireland	16
Netherlands	16
Finland	14
France	13
Germany	10
Slovenia	8
Luxembourg	3
Cyprus	3
Austria	2
Portugal	2
Italy	-1
Spain	-1
Belgium	-3
Greece	-3
Poland	-18
Hungary	-19
Latvia	-20
Lithuania	-20
Estonia	-22
Slovakia	-22
Czech Republic	-27
QS Franklin + Andrews produced the second edition of the Railways Little Black Book last year, a follow up to its first stab at charting the costs in the UK rail industry six years ago. The book looks at costs ranging from signalling to civil engineering bridges, and so on. It also has a section comparing UK rail costs with those around Europe. The UK comes out second highest, at 18% above the European Union average, below Sweden whose prices are a whopping 41% above the average. Andy Mountain, Franklin + Andrews’ head of transportation, lists reasons such as regulation in the UK as well as the healthy workloads as possible reasons for how the UK compares with Europe. “It’s still quite buoyant out there,” he says. “People have not had to be too keen on prices because there is plenty of work around.”