Following previous discussion events on rail transport, we are now debating scope and frontier of sector specific and competition regulation in railways.

Continue reading “3rd Florence Rail Forum. Railways: Between Sector Specific and Competition Regulation”

Following the workshop that launched the Transport Area of the Florence School of Regulation on 9 April 2010 and the first Florence Rail Forum, held 15 November 2010 on “aims, models, and powers of rail regulators”, we turn our attention to performance in railways and to how such performance is linked to market organization. Continue reading “2nd Florence Rail Forum. Performance and Governance in Railway Markets”

Following the initial broad discussion on the rail industry during our first workshop, held on 9 April 2010, we are now focusing specifically on the aims, the models, and the powers of rail regulators.

Air transport is undergoing important changes with ever increasing flows, new emerging actors and new frameworks for operations and capacity management being established.

As the process to develop a Single European Sky and to improve capacity and safety of all elements involved moves forward, new regulatory challenges become topical.

Bringing stakeholders together to discuss such changes and challenges is the first step to establish a forum contributing and benefitting from the practical approach to regulation research taken by the Florence School of Regulation.

Europe is facing increasing competition from other areas of the world, forcing the continent to grow together and offer easy journey between different points. Air transport plays an important role for cross-continental travel, but projections by the European Commission suggest that under current conditions the European airspace and airports will lack the capacity to satisfy the needs of increasing air traffic. The Single European Sky (SES) aims at reducing delays, increasing safety, reducing the environmental impact, and reducing costs related to service provision. It contributes to these goals by de-fragmenting the European airspace, and creating a more efficient air traffic management (ATM) system. An important tool to decrease the fragmentation of the European airspace and enhance cooperation among air navigation service providers (ANSPs) are the Functional Airspace Blocks (FABs).

Work towards the Single European Sky is currently proceeding with the recent nomination of Eurocontrol as the Network Manager, the implementation of the FABs to be completed by the end of this year, performance objectives for RP1 to be met, and work towards RP2 ones launched in June 2011.

Performance-based regulation is new to the air sector. Actors have to work in a new environment joining efforts to meet FAB or network level targets, while also looking at their own ones.  This requires coordination among multiple stakeholders -who sometimes have conflicting interests- as well as the will and the institutional arrangements for stakeholders to work together. For example, actors need to set up ways to complement each other in meeting performance targets.

The achievement of the objectives of the Single European Sky requires stakeholders to work together and attain their own objectives as well as network–wide targets. And targets are expected for more key performance areas. A shift in approach is required with operators working along with the Network Manager, designated as Eurocontrol, to accomplish network objectives.

Rail and air passenger transportation provide both competitive and complementary services. In Europe, there are many medium distance corridors where rail and air services compete. However, this situation is now changing because of the new low cost air carriers offering even lower rates. Can high-speed rail continue to expand if low-cost airlines are taking over as the alternative also on short routes? Should this competition rather be seen in the perspective of integrated transport policy?

Continue reading “2nd Florence Intermodal Forum. High speed rail vs. low-cost air: competing or complementary modes?”