Traditionally, transport regulation has been viewed as an exercise in second-best optimization, acknowledging the existence of huge information problems. Then the rail industry was deeply restructured worldwide to halt erosion of the sector's share of transportation markets. Restructuring took...

After a brief historical overview of its main achievements, this paper examines some of the most relevant characteristics of the Spanish rail system and its performance in recent years. It particularly focuses on the new organizational model emerging from the 2003 Railroad Law which, after...