NERA Economic Consulting is a leader in providing robust, independent, clear economic advice to the transport sector. Our European Transport Group, part of NERA's Global Energy, Environment, and Network Industries Practice, has ten professional economists specializing in transport. Though headquartered in London, we also have experts in our Sydney and US offices with extensive transport sector project experience.

Our Clients
We help transport operators and their associations, governments, governmental bodies, international agencies and regulators. We frequently work in collaboration with bankers, lawyers, public affairs consultants, transport planners, engineers and other technical specialists.

Core Areas
We are experts in the economic regulation of transport operations, and we support companies or regulators during price reviews. We advise on industry restructuring, institutional structures and the design and implementation of regulatory reform. We provide assistance to governmental bodies as they develop public policy in the transport sector, including investment decisions, and we also help companies respond to government consultations. We work in conjunction with other NERA Practices on transport issues, such as our Antitrust Practice, which has provided expert testimony in numerous competition policy cases in the transport sector.

Our Approach

We examine incentives and their likely impact on firms’ behavior. We analyze markets to advise on whether firms have abused market power, or are likely to in the future, and we draw on our knowledge and experience of best practices in economic regulation to advise both firms and regulators.

We undertake cost and pricing analysis. We use benchmarking techniques to estimate the scope for improvements to a firm's productivity and econometrics to estimate fares elasticities and other parameters. We calculate marginal costs, including the external costs of transport, and we assess the merits of alternative pricing structures. We have been employed by several firms to compute their cost of capital.

We are recognized for our expertise in appraisal and evaluation. We prepare formal guidance and provide training on appraisal. We advise on particular aspects of appraisal, such as treatment of risk, discounting or valuation of safety impacts. We have also carried out numerous, authoritative, public policy appraisals and evaluations that feed into policy development.

We are proficient at modeling and forecasting. We develop strategic models to test the impacts of policy levers such as changes to fares, road-user charges or service patterns. We forecast transport demand and prepare financial models to be used in regulatory reviews or business plans.

We pride ourselves in presenting findings that are robust and clear. Our reports are authoritative and many are published.

Sector Expertise

NERA has unparalleled expertise and experience in applying the discipline of economics to the transport sector. We have knowledge and practical experience of all of the main transport fields.

Rail: rail industry structure and reform, rail infrastructure, rolling stock, passenger services, freight operations.

Aviation: airports, airport capacity and slots, airlines, air traffic control.

Urban Transport: public transport organization and regulation, bus services, mass transit, congestion charging.

Ports: port infrastructure, operations and services, shipping.

Sector-wide: privatization and regulation, competition, taxation and pricing, safety, environmental impacts, transport appraisal.