Plans, timetables, and delays: progress with railway reform in transition economies

Abstract

This paper describes the extent of railway reform in a selection of representative transition economies and discusses some of the factors that will influence the success of the reforms in the future. Railways in the European Union’s area of influence, such as those in Poland and Romania, which are financially weak and losing market share to road transport, have advanced on the railway reform path more than those in Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine. The latter are financially strong and enjoy a dominant share of the freight market. Railway reform agendas are ambitious on paper but suffer from implementation delays. The combination of favourable financial conditions, weak inter-modal competition, and politicised decision-making slows down reform. The success of railway reform depends not only on building institutional capacity to make the railways market-oriented and adequately regulated, but also on promoting wider reforms in the economy, such as enterprise restructuring and financial sector development.