Article: Rail competition, a national inhibition

By Gilles SAVARY

MP from Gironde department

Abstract

France is creeping toward a reform of its rail system a few months before the last phase in the construction of single European rail area, as already happened for road or air transportation during the 1990s. The stated EU objective — shared by French representatives in Brussels but still repressed in the discourse of officials in Paris — is to abolish the last national borders that deter the work patiently carried out in view of creating a single rail area. EU rail policy does not just amount to a program for deregulating monopolies and regulating competition; it is also a powerful, deliberate tool for investment in transportation.