LAW: DAVID REWCASTLE & KEVIN BELL
The Third Railway Package The third package extended competition to the international rail passenger market and established open access rights for international rail passenger services between Member States.
It also sought to introduce minimum quality standards and rights that would have to be guaranteed to all passengers on all lines. There are mandatory and non-mandatory aspects.
The non-mandatory aspects
include requirements for transferable tickets, payments upon death and injury and compensation/assistance for delay. These could have a significant impact on UK rail but the UK government has granted certain exemptions to domestic rail services which defers their impact until December 2014.
The Fourth Railway Package The fourth package was published on 30th January 2013. The mission of the European Commission (EC) is to remove the barriers to entry which make it difficult for newcomers to set up and compete with existing service providers (which, particularly on the European mainland, are often state-owned). To this end and to help create a
real single European railway area to complete the trans-European transport network, the fourth package includes the following proposals:
The European Passport for Rolling Stock
The fourth package proposes the use of EU standards in the building of rolling stock vehicles, thus moving to a single European approval system. This would reduce the problems faced by operators in obtaining acceptance for rolling stock vehicles to run in different countries.
It has even been suggested that the ERA may, in time, issue single European certificates for safety and authorisation (although still relying on national authorities to do most of the technical work). This could create a European ‘passport’ to allow rolling stock to move freely in all national networks, provided there is technical compatibility. This in turn would help
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Separation of Infrastructure Management and Operations
The EC suggests that newcomers still face discrimination in obtaining access to infrastructure and rail-related services which are often owned and operated by an existing company with an effective national monopoly. The EC argues that any integrated
structure restricts competition. The fourth package therefore proposes separation of managing tracks and running trains, as in the UK.
Encouraging Competition in Domestic Passenger Markets.
The EC has identified the
requirement to open domestic passenger markets to more competition from 2019 with the aim of bringing innovation and investment into the European rail sector which may lead to improvements in services and efficiency. Competition is regarded by many as the best way to deliver better services to customers. It provides incentives to invest and to improve efficiency and service quality.
The fourth package therefore
proposes the amendment of existing directives, to make competitive award of public service contracts for rail mandatory, and to allow general access to run domestic passenger services but with the possibility to limit access when the economic viability of the public service contract is compromised.
So…?
The Fourth Railway Package will now be considered by the Council and the European Parliament. It is still some way off becoming legislation and the influence of some of the state-owned railways and trade unions in certain Member States should not be under-
The mission of the European Commission (EC) is to remove the barriers to entry which make it difficult for newcomers to set up and compete with existing service providers (which, particularly on the European mainland, are often state-owned).
newcomers enter the market to compete with existing operators and significantly reduce costs.
estimated. The outcome and timetable for the package is therefore far from certain.
However, much of the Fourth Railway Package will be familiar to participants in UK rail industry. The package should not require a major overhaul of the already liberalised UK rail structure.
The same cannot be said for many other Member States. Indeed, the Fourth Railway Package could require the structure of the railways in other Member States to move to something closer to that in the UK.
This would be flattering to UK rail,
but more importantly, it could perhaps represent an opportunity. Within the UK we have extensive experience of a liberalised railway with:
Highly developed rail franchise bidding skills within owning groups that are looking to expand;
Train operators with commercially driven marketing and timetabling techniques and success at growing passenger patronage;
Engineers, within both train and infrastructure operators, with over 20 years’ experience of managing the split between the wheel and the track; and
Exposure to different approaches and culture through the success of foreign companies such as Keolis, Deutsche Bahn and Abellio.
That’s a lot of knowledge and experience to ‘export’ if the Fourth Railway Package truly liberalises the rail market in other Member States. Now, wouldn’t that be something?
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