EU Transport Ministers agree on liberalising domestic rail passenger services

EU Ministers for Transport, Infrastructure and Communications agreed a general approach on two proposals to liberalise domestic rail passenger services and strengthen the governance of railway infrastructure, the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council said in a press statement. The proposals are part of the market pillar of the fourth railway package.

Under the proposals, EU train companies would have non-discriminatory access to the network in all EU countries for the purpose of running domestic passenger services. They could either set up their own commercial services to compete with other operators, or bid for public service contracts. Safeguards would be put in place to prevent conflicts of interest and increase the transparency of financial flows between infrastructure managers and rail operators. See also our cepPolicyBriefs on the fourth railway package which you can find here and here.