Competition and third party access in railroads

This chapter is organized as follows: In section 2 the historical roots of third party access regulation are characterized. This includes the Prussian railway law of 1838 and the terminal railroad case of 1912. In section 3 a normative frame-work, based on modern network economics, for the evaluation of third party access policies is provided. In section 4, the gradual process of market opening for railway transport services and the evolution of third party access regulation in Europe are characterized. In this context the potentials for competition on the markets for passenger rail services and public subsidies are also considered.