Competition for Long-Distance Passenger Rail Services

Railways were initially envisaged as open access facilities with head-on competition between service providers (Lardner, 1850). However, concerns about safety quickly resulted in railways being largely developed as vertically integrated monopolies at a route level but with significant competition between these route-based companies. Over time, competition from other modes reduced the scope for internal competition and led to the rationalisation of duplicated routes and the merger of railway companies. In most countries, long distance passenger rail services1 became a state-owned monopoly but in recent years there has been renewed interest in competitive provision (see, for example, Gomez-Ibanez and de Rus, 2006).

The Future for Interurban Passenger Transport: Bringing Citizens Closer Together

Competition for Long-Distance Passenger Rail Services

The Emerging Evidence