Service Management Models for Railway Infrastructure, an Ecosystem Perspective

Up until 2001 the operation and maintenance of Swedish railway, both the railway infrastructure and the rolling stock, was basically the responsibility of Statens Järnvägar. At this year the operation and maintenance of the Swedish railway was deregulated and as a result the number of actors increased dramatically. Also, during the period from 1990 to 2012 there was an increase in the railway transports of 42 % in train-kilometres. This put great demands on the railway infrastructure operations and service, and indications were seen that the infrastructure was deteriorating leading to delivery quality problems. In order to solve the situation several governmental investigations were initiated. In a governmental report the situation of the railway maintenance is described as problematic due to several technical as well as organisational factors, of which the lack of competition is seen as the most important. Despite several investigations, the desired delivery quality is still not reached. This paper focuses on the Swedish railway infrastructure and describes the background and current state of the Swedish railway service management by utilising a business ecosystem perspective, which lets you capture the complexity and dynamics of the surroundings. By applying this perspective, looking outside the traditional framework of suppliers and customers, important areas in need of investigation or development can be singled out. As a part of the result, the Swedish railway infrastructure industry is modelled as an ecosystem, and directions for future development is pointed out.