The economic regulation of railway networks: A worldwide survey

• Cross-country comparison of rail regulatory systems for a sample of 20 countries.
• High public sector role as infrastructure manager and often as service provider.
• Structured regulatory mechanisms are rarely applied.
• Limited role of regulatory institutions at least in terms of economic regulation.
• Railways reforms and regulatory frameworks shaped by country specific context.

The rapid expansion of car use in the second half of the 20th century together with growing inefficiencies in the publicly run railways, led to traffic decline and financial difficulties for many railway companies. In order to face this situation, various structural reforms have been introduced which have increased the level of private sector involvement, strengthening the need of sound economic regulation. Starting from a desk survey, the paper reviews the resulting railways models for 20 countries. The main characteristics of each regulatory system have been collected and analyzed in order to provide an ex-ante overview of the current practices, both in quantitative and qualitative terms. Results show how public subjects still play a dominant role as infrastructure managers and frequently also as service providers in vertically integrated structures. Limited cases of privatization occurred. Our survey evidence how each country has developed its own framework according to its transport system, political context, economic situation, business and regulatory environment. Further researches are needed to study the ex-post performance of the industry providing empirical evidences of the impacts of the reforms.