Brussels, 24/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European commissioner for transport, Siim Kallas, has confirmed his strong resolve to complete integration of rail models in Europe. He has also announced legal, commercial and financial separation.
Opening the conference on rail reform, organised by the Commission in Brussels on Monday 24 September, he explained his plans that will be at the heart of the fourth railway package, to be presented before the end of the year. He emphasised that, “there is no way that a return to the integrated railway structures that we had in EUROPE 20 years ago can realistically be seen as any kind of way forward”. He therefore laid into integrated railway management models, which bring together in the same network, infrastructure managers and service operators. According to the commissioner, “experience shows us numerous examples of restrictions of competition that would not exist in a separated structure and can only be explained by the conflict of interest that exists in an integrated structure”. Since legislative measures in rail have not been respected, the railways' essential functions should be kept apart from the operation of transport services in an effort to limit the possibility of discrimination. These involve infrastructure maintenance, renewal, upgrade and development, day-to-day traffic management and the provision of real-time information.
Commissioner Kallas considers that separation of accounts within integrated groups is essential. If this separation is not ensured, possibilities arise of cross-subsidising railway operators of the holding with government money or track access revenues from competitors. He believes that this is unacceptable for market newcomers and makes it very difficult for them to gain market access.
This quest to develop integrated models will be one of the three pillars of the next railway package. It is expected to focus on opening up the domestic railway passenger market. This initiative has already being encouraged by a recent Eurobarometer survey published on the same day. According to this survey, 71% of Europeans support greater competition for rail transport at national and regional levels. Kallas believes that this is, above all, a way of preventing member states protecting what they regard as their, “national champions”. (MD/trans/fl)