COMPETITION AND THE RAILROADS: A EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE

Günter Knieps

Journal of Competition Law and Economics, 2013, vol. 9, issue 1, 153-169

Abstract: The reform of European railroads is a time-consuming process strongly characterized by its path-dependency. First, a short outline of the historical roots of the controversial debates on the role of the state and the markets, and the organization of competition in European railroad industries is provided. Second, the opening of the market for train services in the context of the liberalization of European transport markets since 1985 is characterized and the regulatory preconditions for competition on the tracks are presented. Third, the evolution of track access regulation in Europe during the last decades is analyzed, differentiating between the period of negotiated third-party access after 1991, the introduction of ex ante regulation by the first railroad infrastructure package in 2001, and the danger of over-regulation posed by the recent Draft Directive of July 2012, establishing a single European railway area. Fourth, the role of competition on the markets for rail services and the reform process of interoperability requirements are considered. Finally, competition on the markets for rail services and public subsidies for rail infrastructures as well as subsidies for train services are evaluated.

JEL-codes: L51 L92 L98 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/joclec/nhs040 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:jcomle:v:9:y:2013:i:1:p:153-169.

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Competition Law and Economics is currently edited by Nicholas Economides, Amelia Fletcher, Michal Gal, Damien Geradin, Ioannis Lianos and Tommaso Valletti

More articles in Journal of Competition Law and Economics from Oxford University Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().