Effects of Railway Market Liberalisation: European Union Perspective

Abstract

Network activities are an essential part of the economy. They represent services of general economic interest and include electronic communication, electricity, postal and railway services. At the end of the 1980s, the European Commission brought forward legislative proposals to open the monopolistic service markets of general economic interest. In that way, states would prepare the legislation to liberalise services, and state-owned monopolistic enterprises would adapt to the new conditions in the market. State-owned railway companies were megalomanic, exerting a triple role of managing the railway infrastructure and service facilities and providing railway transport services. In the early 1990s, the European Union (EU) adopted new legislation that would open the railway freight transport market. This initiated a new era of the railway. Separation of the functions within state own monopolistic companies into infrastructure management and railway undertakings quickly became a reality, paving the way for new railway freight operators. EU directives are implemented differently throughout the EU, which leads to various solutions. We have analysed various scientific and professional sources to understand better different correlations between the traffic parameters of the railway freight transport market. The key parameters were: (1) number of new undertakings, (2) ton-kilometres, (3) infrastructure charges and (4) quantity of transported goods. This paper researches the current state of the railway freight transport market and aims to define the shortcomings in the analyses of the impact of railway liberalisation on freight transport. Our research pointed out the need for seeing a broader picture of state interventions and infrastructure manager independence in the context of preventing market marginalisation. In addition, we have concluded that a number of the new undertakings is not a crucial parameter for understanding the railway freight transport market.