2nd Florence Rail Regulation Conference. Modal Shift: The Moment of Truth

Shift to rail is one of the main challenges to reach the ambitious Green Deal objectives in transport and one of the key issues in the European Year of Rail. However, data shows that such a modal shift is not happening, as rail modal share is not growing in passenger services and is too low and basically stagnated in freight services (Rail Market Monitoring 2021).

The scope of the conference is to evaluate the existing policies and analyse new proposals to accelerate the modal shift. Debate between academics, industry and public officials is the proposed methodology to provide deep insights and fresh approaches.

We are looking for original papers covering the various aspects of railway regulation and focusing on transversal issues such as: competition, track access charges, capacity allocation, traffic management, night trains, long-distance and cross-border passenger rail services, high-speed services, intermodality, digital mobility/railway platforms and others.

Contributions utilising multidisciplinary, as well as interdisciplinary approaches to regulation, are very welcome. Papers, linking academia and practice, as well as policy research papers, are particularly encouraged.

The conference is intended for academics, as well as academically minded practitioners.

This is a 2-day conference, aiming to engage a selected group of a total of 30 individuals including leading academics, high-level stakeholder representatives (CEOs or deputies) and public officials into a fruitful policy debate.

On the first day there will be presentations of 9 academic papers, followed by a discussion with the audience. The foreseen outcome of the conference is 9 academic papers of excellent quality with policy recommendations, which DG Move and national authorities can use in future planning.

The second day will be devoted to the high-level policy debates based on the papers presented the day before, with the participation of representatives of DG Move, stakeholders and academics.

List of selected authors and titles of their papers:

• Beria, P., Tolentino, S., Shtelle, E., Lunkar, V. “Is there an effect on prices of market entry in open-access rail Italian market?”
• Carames, J.G. “Next steps in the liberalization of the EU passenger rail market: new challenges for future public service contracts”
• Fahnenmüller, L. “How Technical Regulations Shape the Competitive Landscape – a Discussion on ECM, TSI and other Technical Regulations”
• Jain, A., van der Heijden, R., Marchau, V., Bruckmann, D. “The role of digital platforms in the modal shift of road to rail freight transport”
• Kristoffersson, I., Pyddoke,R., Börjesson,M., Karlsson, R., Liu, C. “Modal shift – A dream?”
• Mastrodonato, E. “Integrated coordination to make the railway system more efficient and facilitate the modal shift”
• Michaux, L. “Public Service Obligations in the Railway Sector: The EU’s Regulatory Self-Restraint as Part of the Problem?”
• Nash, C., A., Smith, A., S., Fitzova, H. “Achieving mode shift – what needs to be done?”
• Pagand, I., Bizzotto, S., Holvad, T., Potenza, G. “Rail renaissance strategy”
• Tomeš, Z. “Regulatory approaches to rail competitive entries”

Conference timeline

• Submission of the abstract by 1 June 2021; 15 June 2021. We extended the deadline!
• Notification of acceptance by 1 July 2021;
• Submission of the full paper by 15 November 2021; participants who fail to submit a full paper by this deadline will be automatically removed from the programme;
• Conference on 9^th-10^th December 2021 in Florence (Italy).

Submission of the abstract

• Step 1: Download the obligatory submission template
• Step 2: Fill in all required fields: Introduction and Purpose of the Study; Research Design and Expected Results; Keywords. Please pay attention to the word limit!
• Step 3: Fill in the registration form online and enclose the submission template (see Step 2).

For any issues regarding the submission, please contact Ms Irina Lapenkova at FSR.Transport@eui.eu;

Publication opportunities

• Papers will qualify for fast track review for the Journal Competition and Regulation in Network Industries (SAGE)

Organising Committee

• Prof Juan Montero (EUI, Part-time professor of the Transport Area of the FSR, Professor of Administrative Law and Regulation in UNED University (Madrid).
• Prof Matthias Finger (EUI, Part-time professor and Director of the Transport Area of the FSR. EPFL, Professor Emeritus).
• Prof Chris Nash (Research Professor, Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds. Scientific Advisor, FSR Transport).