Some global touchstones in railway adaptation

Abstract

Paper presented at the 26th Annual Southern African Transport Conference 9 - 12 July 2007 "The challenges of implementing policy?", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa. ABSTRACT: More than three quarters of the world’s railways are constrained in various ways. The authors aimed to develop touchstones to give stakeholders insight into present positioning, and guidance regarding requisite adaptation. The study examined railway adaptation by application of corporate pathology theory. The authors have shown how countries and railways adapted to changing environments, with reference to their systemic nature, and to the clusters within which they currently reside. It was found that mechanistic adaptation is ineffective. Organismic adaptation is recommended where an environment is receptive to privatized railways. Socio-cultural adaptation is recommended where the environment is unreceptive and needs to be prepared as part of the intervention.