Regulating railways

Abstract

This issue of Network Industries Quarterly will look at different issues of rail regulation with examples from in and outside the European Union. The rail sector in Europe like other network industries is in a process of organizational restructuring that is part of different forms of liberalisation as well as de- and re-regulation. In this process many approaches to railway regulation are reassessed. Achieving more, better and more cost efficient rail services for freight and passengers is a commonly shared goal, but there are different opinions on the right policies to achieve this goal. This issue of the Network Industries Quarterly will look at different aspects of rail regulation with examples from in and outside the European Union. On the example of the Swiss rail reform Desmaris looks at the relationship between competition and performance. Kuligowska describes the recent reforms that the Polish rail regulator had to undertake when dealing with open access provision. Laroche discusses the issue of congestion of railway lines and how saturation of rail infrastructure can be modelled. Thiebaud & Amaral look at how prices influence coordination in the rail sector. Peña-Alcaraz et al. present an alternative view on capacity pricing in open access rail systems on the case of Tanzania. ; -- The reform of passenger rail in Switzerland: more performance without competition?, Christian Desmaris - Institute of Political Studies, University of Lyon, France -- Current regulatory challenges in access to the rail infrastructure in Poland, Izabela Kuligowska – Polish Office of Rail Transportation -- Methods for saturation modelling of railway lines: the case of High-Speed Line Paris-Lyon, Florent Laroche - Institute of Political Studies, University of Lyon, France -- Vertical Separation in Rail Transport: How Do Prices Influence Coordination?, Miguel Amaral, Jean-Christophe Thiebaud - French Railway Regulatory Body (ARAF) & EPPP Chair (Sorbonne Business School) -- Capacity pricing schemes to implement open-access rail in Tanzania, Maite Peña-Alcaraz, Ignacio Perez-Arriaga, Joseph M. Sussman - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)