Nicosia, 06/11/2012 (Agence Europe) - A new study is feeding debate on the choice of an integrated or separate railway model. This time the study points out that no structure - vertical or horizontal - is preferable to another, suggesting that the Commission should advocate the free choice of member states in the fourth railway package (due out in November).
While uncertainty persists on the option that the Commission will put forward it the fourth railway package as regards a separate or integrated model of rail organisation, this supplementary study sticks its oar into the preparations of this important legislative package. The study - “Economic Effects of Vertical Separation in the Railway Sector” (EVES-Rail) - is brought by the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) and has been carried out by an international research consortium led by the Dutch from Inno-V, in collaboration with other British, German and Japanese researchers.
Their inquiry shows that there is no evidence “that competition within the rail sector works better with vertical separation than with a holding company” and that “no particular structural model outperforms all others”. The EVES-Rail study also considers that the costs of the sector would increase in the case of a universal imposition of vertical separation in the European Union, although this may differ from one country to another. This is why its authors conclude that “the EU should therefore opt for a policy of free choice of structural model for the rail sector, including the right for member states to switch freely between the vertical separation model and the holding company model depending on national circumstance”.
The CER chairman, Mauro Moretti, takes advantage of these results to slip in that the imposition of a single European railway model would mean that “member states' budgets could not cope with the rising costs deriving from such a reform, nor could the European citizens. We are confident that the European Commission will carefully reflect on today's discussion and that the proposal will fully take into account the results of this study”. (MD/transl.fl)