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Evaluating the roles and powers of rail regulatory bodies in Europe: A survey-based approach

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  • Benedetto, Valerio
  • Smith, Andrew S.J.
  • Nash, Chris A.

Abstract

European railways have been shaped by multiple reforms since the mid-1990s, covering industry structure, market opening and economic regulation. However, the literature has given little attention to the latter; namely the evolution and impacts of regulatory reforms amongst Europe's railways. This paper fills this gap by providing an up-to-date, bottom-up assessment of current rail regulatory practice in Europe. We develop a survey of economic regulators across Europe, thus complementing top-down studies of the impact of economic regulation by enabling a richer insight into regulatory activity and its impacts. The questionnaire is based on a review of the literature on ideal regulatory characteristics across multiple industries. Our results show that European rail regulators, in general, exhibit many of the features of ideal regulation; in particular around key features such as independence, resourcing, longevity and expertise, transparency and in turn stability and predictability. However, we find that rail regulatory bodies could take a more proactive role in shaping track access charges, given their importance in respect of efficient use of the network and maintaining non-discriminatory access. Importantly, there is also scope for regulators to play a greater role in regulating the efficiency and quality of infrastructure managers, and potentially becoming more involved in the designing stages of passenger market opening as it emerges; and these changes could deliver substantial beneficial impacts for rail users and funders across Europe.

Suggested Citation

  • Benedetto, Valerio & Smith, Andrew S.J. & Nash, Chris A., 2017. "Evaluating the roles and powers of rail regulatory bodies in Europe: A survey-based approach," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 116-123.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:trapol:v:59:y:2017:i:c:p:116-123
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2017.07.003
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Gassner, Katharina & Pushak, Nataliya, 2014. "30 years of British utility regulation: Developing country experience and outlook," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 44-51.
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    4. Álvarez-SanJaime, Óscar & Cantos-Sanchez, Pedro & Moner-Colonques, Rafael & Sempere-Monerris, Jose J., 2016. "Rail access charges and internal competition in high speed trains," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 184-195.
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    Cited by:

    1. Branislav Bošković & Mirjana Bugarinović & Gordana Savić & Ratko Djuričić, 2021. "Challenges of Track Access Charges Model Redesign," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-14, December.
    2. Mizutani, Fumitoshi, 2020. "A comparison of vertical structural types in the railway industry: A simple mathematical explanation model," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    3. Allen, John G. & Newmark, Gregory L., 2021. "Access protocols for railroads: Reframing the infrastructure separation debate," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    4. Ristić, Bojan & Stojadinović, Nikola & Trifunović, Dejan, 2022. "Conditions for effective on-track competition in the European passenger railway market: A yardstick for regulations," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 1-15.
    5. Casullo Lorenzo, 2017. "Rail Funding and Financing," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 16(2), pages 125-141, June.
    6. Phill Wheat & Alexander D. Stead & Yue Huang & Andrew Smith, 2019. "Lowering Transport Costs and Prices by Competition: Regulatory and Institutional Reforms in Low Income Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-19, October.

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