Efficient competition on European rail transport markets is conditional upon the existence of non-discriminatory access to infrastructure for all active and potential transport service providers. In addition, however, efforts must also be made to ensure scarce infrastructure capacities are...

The reform of European railroads is a time-consuming process strongly charac-terized by its path-dependency. Firstly, a short outline of the historical roots of the controversial debates on the role of the state and the markets, and the organi-zation of competition in European railroad...

Network services can be provided efficiently in competitive markets, if nondiscriminatory access to the complementary infrastructure capacities is guaranteed. The sector-symmetric application of the disaggregated regulatory approach to railways and telecommunications reveals the different role...

The railroad package of 2001 focusing on access regulation is in the process of a reform. Particularly, the European Commission intends to remove the obstacles to fair competition that have been identified since 2001. In this context, the paper points out the relevance of the disaggregated...

This chapter is organized as follows: In section 2 the historical roots of third par-ty 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...