4th Florence Rail Regulation Conference

The 4^th Florence Rail Regulation Conference aims to discuss advancements for accelerating the growth of the railways in the EU. This conference is a space where academics, selected industry representatives, and policymakers can debate freely on fresh approaches to rail regulation. The scope of the conference will be to find practical solutions through rigorous academic dialogue and constructive debate. This conference is part of Transport Week, which includes two academic conferences focusing on Rail and Aviation regulation and a Summer School on Transport Regulation. Here, representatives from the European Commission, practitioners, and academics can discuss priorities for the next commission.

The Conference organizers are looking for original papers on topics that range from regulatory challenges to sustainable railways. Contributions that employ multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches to regulation and that combine academia and practice are highly encouraged. The conference is intended for academics, academically minded practitioners and PhD researchers. The best papers will be eligible for publication in a book on Transport Regulation in Europe, to be published by a leading publisher biennially.

The Conference is organized by the Transport Area of the Florence School of Regulation of the European University Institute and will take place in Florence (Italy).

 Conference Structure

The format of the Florence Conference on the Regulation of Railways will be the following:

• Presentation of Academic Papers (20´/Paper aprox.)
• Feedback and Debate around the Papers (20´/Paper aprox.)

This is a 1-day conference, aiming to discuss 10/12 papers and engage a selected group of 30/40 individuals, including leading academics, high-level stakeholder representatives, and public officials, into a fruitful policy debate.

Papers to be presented at the conference:

1. Rolling Stock Management and Railway Efficiency: Evidence from a Line-Level Analysis of Regional Rail Services in France, Nicolas Fabre, Florent Laroche, Louafi Bouzouina
2. Developing models for Africa’s freight railway system regulation, Bernard Aritua, Jan H. Havenga, Andrea Giuricin, Zane P. Simpson, Stefaan Swarts, Henk Neethling
3. Night trains in Europe – sustainable alternative or niche market?, Zdeněk Tomeš, Vilém Pařil
4. Railway performance: lessons from efficiency analyses, Torben Holvad, Eva Valeri
5. Including the evaluation of social impacts in the appraisal of transportation investments, Mario, Tartaglia, Ilaria, Lopresti, Martina, Farsi
6. Open for Access? A comparative assessment of frameworks used to evaluate open access passenger rail services, Wiktor Woszczek, Enrico Russo
7. Regulating the fair access to rolling stock: current situation in the Single European Railway Area (SERA), Guillem Ochoa i Pérez, Iñigo Aguas Ardaiz
8. Determinants of rail price variability in Europe under competition, Beria Paolo, Battilocchi Tommaso, Mattioli Lorenzo, Fitzová Hana, Pařil Vilém
9. Two roads diverged -Two alternate strategies for protecting captive freight shippers in the “Americas” model of freight rail restructuring, Russell Pittman
10. Regulating Small Underloaded Rail Networks—Challenges and Policy Priorities, Justina Hudenko
11. Cooperation, competition, coopetition in cross-border rail services: which model will prevail?, Laurent Guihéry, Lorenzo Freire–Stella

Timeline

• Submission of the Abstract by 7 February 2025 using the form. Please send the completed form to Ms Elodie Petrozziello at fsr.transport@eui.eu
• Notification of Acceptance by 21^st of February 2025;
• Submission of the Full Paper by 16^th of June 2025; participants who fail to submit a full paper by this deadline will be automatically removed from the programme;
• Conference on  7 July 2025 in Florence (Italy).

Guidelines for the abstract

• 400-600 words (abstract);
• Title of the paper & keywords;
• Name of the author(s) and full address of the corresponding author;
• The aim and methodology of the paper; and
• Results obtained or expected

Organising committee

Juan Montero | Director of the Transport Area of the FSR, Professor of Administrative Law and Regulation in UNED University (Madrid)

Matthias Finger | Part-time professor and Deputy Director of the Transport Area of the FSR. EPFL, Professor Emeritus

Elodie Petrozziello | Research Associate of the Transport Area of the FSR

Please note that attendance at the conference is by invitation only.