Competition in Freight Railways : 'Above-the-Rail' Operators in Central Europe and Russia

The railways of Russia and the Central and Eastern European countries are in the process of restructuring. In most cases, the vertical separation reform model is being pursued, and reformers are seeking to introduce competition among freight train operators through the provision of open access to the monopoly infrastructure. This paper shows that, in two countries, Poland and Romania, a good deal of competition has been created by the entry of new freight operators, many of them either large shippers integrating upstream or former freight forwarders. However, in other countries, the incumbent freight operators retain virtually 100 percent of the market. In particular, Russia has taken only the very first steps toward creating competition in this sector, and new freight train operators face significant barriers to competing with the incumbent