Brussels, 23/12/2010 (Agence Europe) - How to determine the principal purpose of a rail service and how to assess the impact of a new operator's access to public service contracts are the two issues the European Commission has decided to clarify in order to facilitate opening the rail market up to competition. No new measures are proposed but the approach backed by the Commission seeks to encourage national authorities to be more flexible when considering requests for access to the infrastructure from new operators, including international operators.
The responses to the two questions are contained in an interpretive communication, adopted by the Commission on Tuesday 21 December, on implementation of directive 2007/58/EC of the second rail package on the allocation of railway infrastructure capacity. This directive authorises, initially, trains from other member states to have access to the rail infrastructure of a member state as part of an international transport service (crossing at least one border) and enshrines the right for these trains to stop in stations along the whole length of the journey. To prevent this having a negative impact on national transport services, however, the directive states that access to the infrastructure should be restricted to services the main purpose of which is to transport passengers making an international journey. The proportion of the service's turnover derived from the transport of domestic and international passengers and the length of the service are criteria which the directive says have to be taken into account by national authorities when granting a new operator access to the rail infrastructure. In its interpretation, the Commission has not sought to establish any threshold above which a rail service may be considered as having the principal purpose of transporting international passengers. However, it invites national regulators to examine the nature of the service in the medium-term, rather than at any given moment, placing greater emphasis on the business plan and market forecasts submitted by the rail company which is seeking to open a new route. The Commission also defines the “economic equilibrium” of public service contracts. The directive allows member states to refuse new entrants whose service might threaten this economic equilibrium. The Commission says that the simple argument that any new operator joining the market would require an increase in public funding is not valid. It says that this increase has to be “substantial” before it may be considered as compromising economic equilibrium. Publication of the communication coincides with the Commission's opening of an investigation of Italian rail authorities which, for the purpose of maintaining the economic equilibrium of the public operators, imposed severe restrictions on operations by an international consortium (Deutsche Bahn, OBB of Austria and Le Nord) in its network. The three companies were prohibited from allowing passengers to board their trains in Italy. The Commission says that the arguments advanced by the Italian authorities to justify these restrictions were not sufficient to invoke the threat of damaging economic equilibrium. Rome now has three months to clarify the affair. (A.By./transl.rt)