From state railway housekeeping to railway economics

Abstract

In this article the development of Swedish railway policy in the twentieth century is interpreted as a process of institutional change where the effects of real economic development are filtered through the railway s established institutional framework. The change in railway policy is seen as a result of an economic historical process where the industrialisation era’s conception of the role of railways in society survives in institutional arrangements, and marks the railways adjustment to present-day economic and social conditions.