This is the first Forum on intermodality and we want to start out by focusing it on urban public transport. In the urban context, numerous modes of transport are active, namely buses, metros, trams, trains, and even taxis. Current regulation of public urban transport is scattered among various actors depending on transport modes and ownership.

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The 8th Florence Rail Forum will address the complex relationship between regulation, asset renewal and investments in both railway infrastructures and rolling stock. More concretely, the question is whether regulation is favouring or impeding such asset renewal and investments and how exactly these complex relationships play out in practice.

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The purpose of this 7^th Florence Rail Forum is to crystallise the different national regulatory rail «philosophies», which are unavoidable elements that have to be taken into consideration when it comes to the implementation of all the European directives.

Continue reading “7th Florence Rail Forum. Current Challenges of Rail Regulation in Europe: The European Regulators’ View”

The 4^th Railway Package is another step towards the European Commission’s vision of a Single European Railway Area and as such will contribute to reshaping the European railway sector. The 6^th Florence Rail Forum will analyse and discuss one of the 4^th Railway Package’s pillars, namely the technical pillar.

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Following previous discussion events on rail transport, we continue debating railway liberalisation in Europe. The current developments on the European level trigger the question how liberalization will evolve. Especially, they want to know which form competition will take: will competition be about access as was the original idea of the European Commission or will it rather evolve into tendering of various bits and pieces of the railway system?
Continue reading “5th Florence Rail Forum. Further Steps in Railway Liberalization: Market Opening and Tendering”

Following previous discussion events on rail transport, we are now debating if the logic of liberalization followed by the European Commission fits the sector and whether it can be pursued unchanged or needs reconsideration.

Continue reading “4th Florence Rail Forum. 20 Years of Rail Liberalization in Europe: Key Lessons and Future Prospects”

The virtues of a Single European Sky (SES) have been acknowledged by all major stakeholders for a long time. It would reduce delays, increase safety, reduce the environmental impact of aviation and the costs for airlines related to air navigation service provision.

In practice this common understanding has however not led to a significant advancement of the SES. In fact, in spite of several attempts to push forward the necessary reforms in Air Traffic Management, the SES seems to be in gridlock. However with traffic volumes predicted to further increase the challenge to integrate the European Sky remains nonetheless acute – as it would be impossible to achieve the necessary capacity increases without raising the efficiency of Air Traffic Control (ATC). Different ways to achieve further steps towards a Single European Sky in spite of the political gridlock are therefore urgently needed.

Following the usual format of the Florence School of Regulation, the 6 ^th  Florence Air Forum aims at offering a platform to senior stakeholders from regulators, politics, operators, ANSPs, air carriers, airports, authorities, associations to discuss with prominent academics and to take stock of topics relevant to aviation regulation and policies. Relevant stakeholders such as Florian Guillermet (Executive Director of SESAR JU),  Frank Brenner (Director General of Eurocontrol), and  Maria Mas Rueda  (SESAR Programme Manager at the European Defence Agency) already confirmed their participation.

The 6 ^th Florence Air Forum will take stock of the different interests in the Single European Sky (SES) and discuss how its governance can best accommodate the various interests at hand, while making the most effective use of SESAR deployment. Once implemented, the SES would create benefits for all actors involved. Yet, in the short run there are costs: costs for adapting to the new technology, as well as political costs resulting from the redistribution of power among the involved actors.

The fourth Railway Package was proposed in 2013 and forms part of a series of regulatory initiatives to create a more efficient and connected European rail sector. The six proposed legislative initiatives that the package is composed of will be the most important items on the European Commission’s agenda in the area of railways regulation. Several elements of the package have not yet reached a consensus by all parties and negotiations are ongoing.

Continue reading “9th Florence Rail Forum. Discussing the 4th Railway Package: which role for markets in domestic rail passenger transport?”