a comprehensive international conference on the past, present and future effects of EU rail policy
How effective has European rail policy been so far? Has it effectively guaranteed fair competition over the past years? These questions will be posed and answered during the international conference Effectiveness of EU Rail Policy. The conference will also address issues such as the rail policy making process itself, its current status as well as the future of EU rail policy. It will be held in Brussels on 22 June 2010. The organisers of Rail-Tech Europe based in the Netherlands have initiated this conference due to the need for an international platform to discuss the effectiveness and progress on this important cross-border issue for the rail sector. It is being run in association with the Institute for Transport Studies at the University of Leeds in the UK, who have undertaken extensive research on these issues.
European railways have undergone profound changes during the last decade. In order to increase the intermodal competitiveness of both passenger and freight traffic, the European Commission has introduced legislation via the three Railway Packages. Under this legislation the member states have inter alia separated operations and infrastructure, completely opened the market for rail freight to competition and – as from now (January 2010) – will open access to the operation of international passenger services. The Commission is now considering further reforms, including possible ways of opening up the domestic passenger market. Resulting from the elaborate reforms there are voices expressing the need for strong regulatory national bodies that must supervise all rail related services in order to guarantee fair access to all international rail actors.
However, there have been doubts about the effectiveness of these reforms. Partly these rest on a failure of the member states to fully implement them. The Commission is currently taking action to enforce the directives, as well as preparing a recast of them. But it is also argued that some of the necessary prerequisites for the reforms to be successful are not in place, in particular adequate funding of rail infrastructure in all member states, and charging for external costs on other modes.
Over the past few years, the Institute for Transport Studies at the University of Leeds has undertaken a number of research projects to contribute to the identification of best practices in the implementation of EU rail policy and to consider how effective policy has been. The results from this and other research, as well as the plans of the Commission and the views of the industry stakeholders on where we should be heading will be discussed during the June conference.
The conference has the following themes: European rail policy, regulation, competition in the passenger market and competition in the freight market. Each session will be followed by a forum discussion. High-quality speakers will share their experiences and viewpoints with the audience. In the session on EU rail policy confirmed speakers are for instance Maurizio Castelletti representing the EC’s DG TREN, Johannes Ludewig, executive director at the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) and Chris Nash of the UK Institute for Transport Studies.
Other confirmed speakers at this moment are Karsten Otte working for the German Bundesnetzagentur and Emile Quinet of the French Institute PSE-ENPC (School of Economics – École des Ponts ParisTech). They both share their expertise with the listeners in the session on regulation. Furthermore Michel Quidort, president of the association of the European Passenger Transport Operators (EPTO) and Jan-Eric Nilsson, of the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI) will cover the theme of competition in the passenger market.
The organisers, the Institute for Transport Studies and the Dutch Europoint Rail Technology Conferences & Exhibitions aim to reach a successful interaction in June between speakers, forum participants, industry stakeholders and other delegates resulting in sharing best practices, stimulating cross-border cooperation and effective progress.
More information
More information including the conference programme is available at www.railpolicy.eu
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