Despite positive developments in certain markets, a number of obstacles continue to limit the establishment of a single European railway area, as provided for in the Directive, the European Commission pointed out in a report published on Tuesday 8 July. Certain aspects of the directive do not remove the remaining obstacles.
The provision of cross-border services remains difficult due to problems of interoperability and coordination of capacities. These points are particularly thorny for newcomers and small start-ups, which have to rely on multiple partners. Night trains, with negative or very narrow profit margins, are particularly difficult to introduce.
There continue to be significant barriers to entry for all passenger services and these barriers are not always addressed in EU legislation. Purchasing new rolling stock is expensive and requires long delivery times, particularly for passenger transport. This represents a challenge, particularly for small operators and ‘pure’ new entrants, who often struggle to finance their investments, as opposed to the large incumbent operators and their subsidiaries.
The leasing and second-hand markets for passenger rolling stock do not yet work efficiently, unlike in the freight sector. In the passenger sector, active operators may prefer scrapping rolling stock over reselling to avoid favouring competitors.
Read the report: https://aeur.eu/f/htn (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)