EUROPE NEEDS A RAILWAY REFORM

The author of this article is the Director General of the Swedish rail company Banverket. He argues that the EU should grasp the opportunity to develop rail's potential as a 'green' transport mode. The EU's Subsidiarity Principle should not be allowed to hinder urgently needed reforms. Railways have important advantages in terms of environment, energy, and safety. There are four main obstacles that prevent rail from competing sufficiently well with road transport, despite these advantages. Most of them can be removed in the short term and all of them in the long term. Competition between transport modes does not occur on equal terms, as current political rules favour road transport but hinder rail. EU International freight transport regulations and charges are unnecessarily complicated. The rail sector has insufficient harmonisation between countries. Too many national rail administrations are monopolistic and ineffective. The EU Council of Ministers and Parliament need to provide effective regulations, which aim to: (1) begin to create an open EU rail transport market; (2) divide responsibility between infrastructure administrations and transport operators; (3) establish efficient track charges; (4) allocate track capacity, and allow many organisations to apply for it; and (5) provide effective enforcement by inspection.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/13511599
• Corporate Authors:

  RUSSELL PUBLISHING LTD

  4 BOURLET CLOSE
  LONDON,   United Kingdom  W1P 7PJ
• Authors:
  • BYLUND, B
• Publication Date: 2000

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: p. 17-23
• Serial:
  • EUROPEAN RAILWAY REVIEW
  • Volume: 6
  • Issue Number: 1
  • Publisher: RUSSELL PUBLISHING LTD
  • ISSN: 1351-1599

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Carriers; Competition; Energy conservation; Environmental protection; Freight transportation; Legislation; Policy; Public transit; Railroad tracks; Railroad transportation; Safety; Taxes; Transportation corridors; Transportation modes
• Identifier Terms: European Union
• Geographic Terms: Sweden
• ITRD Terms: 235: Competition; 1116: Corridor (transp); 212: Energy conservation; 2444: Environment protection; 8303: EU; 741: Goods traffic; 1556: Legislation; 173: Policy; 744: Public transport; 1173: Rail bound transport; 1665: Safety; 8109: Sweden; 268: Tax; 1145: Transport mode; 274: Transport operator
• Subject Areas: Energy; Environment; Finance; Freight Transportation; Law; Policy; Public Transportation; Railroads; Safety and Human Factors; Terminals and Facilities;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00793749
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport Research Laboratory
• Files: ITRD
• Created Date: Jun 15 2000 12:00AM