A comparison of rail liberalisation levels across four European countries

Abstract

The paper presents the results of a research on railway regulation and liberalisation in Italy, France, Germany and Spain. The analysed fields of regulation are the relationship between the State and the rail companies, network access conditions by operators, slot allocating and pricing schemes and how public service obligations are defined, paid and regulated. The aim of the paper is to give a comparative overview of the rail regulation from a critical point of view, rather than descriptive. The regulatory frameworks are outlined and then assessed according to their implications on the liberalisation level and on the effective market opening. The conclusions are that the actual level of liberalisation is still scarce and only in some cases the opening level is increasing. Market penetration of newcomers is significant only in niche markets. An issue emerging from the work is the opposing attitude of incumbent railways against liberalisation and the role of decision makers in backing this behaviour. The strategies followed to limit the outcomes of the liberalisation process are different across the country sample. However, all the incumbents argue with the self-referential declaration of efficiency, public service obligations and they claim to be under an excessive and unfair foreign competition. These arguments are yet embedded in legislative, organisational and economic settings supporting these positions like the common ownership of network and services, the permanence of dominant positions and favourable financial conditions.

Railway Transport Liberalization: A Case Study of Various Countries in the World

“…Besides, there is segmentation between the railway operator and the infrastructure manager since the previous performs network maintenance under management agreements with the infrastructure manager in France. The railway operator and the infrastructure manager are completely independent and are not two substations of a holding, is a solely country using a different model is France (Beria, Quinet, De Rus, & Schulz, 2012).…”

“…Railway operators must have the status of independent operators behaving in a commercial way and adapting to the market needs. At the same time railway operators would be cost savings, a better profile to increase competitive advantage, improve their productivity and develop environmental performance (Beria, Quinet, De Rus, & Schulz, 2012). Effective railway transportation has considerable impacts on economic growth and social development (Busu & Busu, 2015).…”

“…Laurino, Ramella, & Beria (2015) analyzed the economic regulation of railway network in 20 countries and found that open marketing for railway cargo transportation is authorized while different degrees of freedom exist in setting agreements between operators for trackage and haulage rights but effective competition in the market has been very limited in railways passenger transportation. Beria, Quinet, De Rus, & Schulz (2012) reviews a comparative overview of railway liberalization in Italy, Germany, France, Spain and conclude that railway liberalization help to eliminate the barriers and improve competitive advantages. Cowie (2015) found that there is an evidence to have barriers for railway passenger and cargo transportation.…”

Schemes and Levels of State Aid to Rail Industry in Europe: Evidences From a Cross-Country Comparison

“…Also Beria et al, (2012) argue that entry in the industry has not yet developed its full potential and highlight that an issue emerging in this research is the opposing attitude of incumbent railways against liberalisation and the role of governments in backing this behaviour. To this regard, by comparing Sweden, Great Britain and Germany, the examination of subsidy levels finds that Germany has the slowest growth in public financial support for its railway, as well as the lowest increase in fares (Nash, Nilsson & Link, 2013) and model Nilsson et al, (2013) describe recent reforms in Sweden, and to address how the reforms have handled four critical issues for the success of the reforms: the allocation of infrastructure capacity; the provision of maintenance and terminal facilities; the access to rolling stock; and the provision of information and ticketing to travellers.…”

“…They also examine the pricing levels applied to railway services to study the coherence between national charging systems and the charging principle on which they are based. By the same token Beria et al, (2012) provide an analysis of the relationship between the State and the rail companies, network access conditions by operators, slot allocating and pricing schemes and how public service obligations are defined, financed and regulated. EU rules require track access charges to be set on the basis of direct/marginal costs the cost directly incurred as a result of operating a train service.…”