Open Access/Liberalization - key figures
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Europe & World – railway policy
Liberalization is a creation of an open
railway market. Open Access is a right for a train operator to enter on an existing market and to
compete with the incumbent. There is therefore well, on the railway lines
referred, two or more competitors providing the same services in the same
stations, but not the same price. This is the case for all freight railway
services and few passengers transport companies.
Thus it should not be confused with
competition FOR the market. In this
case, it is assigned a monopoly of service for 10 or 15 years to the company
which has made the best offer. This is the case mostly used in Europe for the
attribution of regional public transport services.
Why
this policy ?
The aim of this policy has been to promote
the efficiency and competitiveness of the railways through gradual liberalization.
Indeed, according its promoters, most aspects of price and quality are run as
ministries or as state administrations, and railways are fettered in their
ability to operate as a business. For Europe, the railroads are considered as a
central piece of the transport policy regarding the fight against pollution and
congestion of cars and trucks on the road. In January 1990 the European
Commission (EC) prepared the White Paper Communication on a Community
Railway Policy for the Council of Ministers. This was the starting point of
an active involvement of the Community in rail policy, where it has been
necessary to produce four railway legislative packet and more than 25 years of
work to achieve the first tangible results.
Which
results today ?
1990-2000. The first sector which was entered to an existing market, since years 90’, was the freight sector,
particularly in Germany, UK, Netherlands, Italy and Sweden. Passenger’s traffic
has followed the movement of liberalization but in a diversified manner. Since
years 90 in UK and in Sweden, later in Germany or in Netherland, many regional
networks have been subject to a call for tenders, without awaiting the adoption
of the European railway packages. In this case, that's a entry for a market
with a monopolist service for a given time, both for railways services and for
bus services. This is more practiced in federal countries of north of Europe
rather than the south.
2003. The official year where Europe opens the freight market and this
concerns mainly many traction companies rather than logistics companies. The best-known are: ECR, EWS, Europorte,
Crossrail, ERS, BoxXpress, ITL, RTC,...
2010. Since this date, the right access on a railway infrastructure can
be used only for international passenger traffic. Today, Thello is the only one
which uses this opportunity between Venice and Paris and on the Milan-Marseille
route. It is thought that Eurostar and, later, Thalys or DB International, will
follow the same path to become really independent companies. But there exist
more national examples, as shown below, where two or three companies compete on
the same line and in the same stations:
To read : the role of open access in UK
