A Note On Non Discriminatory Access To Railroad Infrastructure

In this report, some of the world's leading experts in rail regulation examine the restructuring of the sector, focusing on tariff reform and the introduction of competition in one of the world's largest rail networks.

This review of China's regulatory system focuses on the overall economic context for regulatory reform, the government’s capacity to manage regulatory reform, competition policy and enforcement, and market openness.

Transport infrastructure developments will depend increasingly on the level of user charges. One reason is the ongoing liberalization of the EU transport sector, especially for air and rail. Another is the trend towards implementing tolls and other user charges on roads. It is expected that user charges will progressively replace government subsidies for infrastructure expansion and maintenance. Revenues from user charges may also be used to cross subsidize other transport modes. The surplus anticipated on urban roads could be used to fund infrastructure and operation of public transport and/or non-urban roads. This book brings together both the theory and the current practice of user charges, tolls and revenue use in European countries. It examines public finance aspects such as earmarking, as well as public management aspects of different pricing and revenue use principles. A set of guidelines is developed for a better use of toll and tax revenues. The set of guidelines is tested with a new cost benefit tool in case studies that cover France, Germany, Norway , Switzerland and the UK. Research in Transportation Economics is now available online at ScienceDirect — full-text online of volumes 6 onwards.

Using numerous practical examples,this book examines the evolution of EC telecommunications law following the achievement of liberalisation, the main policy goal of the 1990s. After reviewing the development of regulation in the run-up to liberalisation, the author identifies the methods used to direct the liberalisation process and tests their validity in the post-liberalisation context. A critical analysis is made of the claim that competition law will offer sufficient means to regulate the sector in the future. Particular emphasis is given to the way in which EC Competition Law changed in the 1990s using the essential facilities doctrine, an expansive non-discrimination principle and the policing of cross-subsidisation to tackle what were then thought of as regulatory matters. Also examined within the work is the procedural and institutional interplay between competition law and telecommunications regulation. In conclusion, Larouche explores the limits of competition law and puts forward a long-term case for sector-specific regulation, with a precise mandate to ensure that the telecommunications sector as a whole fulfils its role as a foundation for economic and social activity.