Harman Patil (Editor)

Fourth Railway Package

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The fourth railway package is a set of planned changes to rail transport regulation in the European Union. It covers standards and authorisation for rolling stock; workforce skills; independent management of infrastructure; and the liberalisation of domestic passenger services in an attempt to reduce European rail subsidies.

The fourth railway package is another attempt at reforming a rail sector still dominated by state-owned railway businesses that control both the tracks and the trains; they have repeatedly resisted attempts to separate the two parts of the business, which would supposedly allow more competition. In particular, the fourth railway package's has been watered down; instead of requiring infrastructure and train operations to be completely separate businesses, it permits them to be owned by a single holding company. The "compliance verification clause" could allow regulators to place sanctions on parts of a vertically integrated rail business which place obstacles in the way of competitors trying to provide services on their network; this would improve competition.

Responsibility for authorising rolling stock to use a network would be shifted away from network owners and towards the European Railway Agency; this is expected to be faster and cheaper.

In 2015, the technical and political pillars of the package were accepted by EU transport ministers and currently the European Commission, Parliament and Council are negotiating to reach an agreement on the text of the regulations. The technical pillar of the fourth railway package has been adopted by the European Commission and approved by the European Parliament in April 2016.

References

Fourth Railway Package Wikipedia