Shaping the Future of European Rail: Regulation, Digitalisation, and Fair Competition

The European rail sector is experiencing a rapid transformation thanks to digitalisation. At the same time, policymakers and industry stakeholders navigate the challenges of regulation, digitalisation, and fair competition. From redefining ticket distribution and embracing multimodal mobility to ensuring balanced oversight and fostering innovation. These are central themes for shaping the future of rail travel across Europe.

This issue of Network Industries Quarterly focuses on the role of digital platforms in shaping transport in Europe. In his contribution, entitled “Regulating Railway Ticket Distribution: What is at Stake?”, Prof. Juan Montero provides a clear picture of the context of the progressive change that rail transport has undergone. Elodie Petrozziello’s contribution, entitled ‘The Multimodal Digital Mobility Services Initiative – From the Train to the Platform,’ provides an overview of the potential legal and policy frameworks. Federico Catania, in his piece entitled ‘Beyond the tracks: digital ticketing, fair competition and the future of European rail’, flags the benefits of competition and of using intermediary platforms, both for passengers and transport operators. Last, Sophie Lombard, in her piece entitled ‘Improving client experience through ticketing: current state of play and way forward’, navigates among the existing obligations for rail service providers and calls for a balanced regulatory approach, avoiding demanding obligations on operators.

Editors of this issue:
Juan Montero & Elodie Petrozziello

Ticket Distribution in Aviation

Innovation is closely linked to air transport, from the development of aircraft technologies to the creation of computer reservation systems. The latter led to the development of global distribution systems (GDSs) that consolidated airline supply and presented it clearly for travel agents to sell air tickets to passengers. Although there are many challenges, the development and regulation of ticketing distribution are relevant to this day. This issue of Network Industries Quarterly aims to untangle the complexity of ticket distribution in aviation by examining it from different angles.

In their contribution titled “Regulating Ticket Distribution in Aviation: What is at stake?”, Juan Montero and Matthias Finger provide context for the ticket distribution system by discussing the key measures required for its regulation. Montserrat Barriga’s contribution addresses how digitalisation has changed the aviation industry. It offers prospects to enhance connectivity, convenience and transparency for passengers, but it also reminds the industry and policymakers to be aware of possible challenges for regional airlines. The complexity of ticket distribution is also discussed by Attila Fodor in his piece “Behind the Sky: Air Ticket Distribution – a complex world”. The author examines key challenges in air ticket distribution and proposes investigating solutions from other industries while considering all stakeholders involved. The fourth contribution from María Jesús Guerrero Lebrón examines whether regulation of GDSs is still needed. The European Union must find a balance between promoting innovation and implementing effective regulations that ensure all parties adhere to the same standards. In their contribution, Sabine Buchner and Roman van Alten discuss airline ticket distribution as a regulatory opportunity to enhance innovation and collaboration within the aviation industry. The final contribution is from Matthew Krasa, who emphasizes the importance of direct ticket distribution for airlines, enabling them to be more transparent with consumers and invest in innovation.

Editors of this issue:

Juan Montero and Elodie Petrozziello

Urban Nodes

The European Union is strongly urbanised, with 432 urban nodes identified. This vast array of urban hubs has a significant economic and geographical value. Urban nodes are critical to the TEN-T network, which aims to identify any missing infrastructural links that national authorities might have overlooked while focusing on building the national network. The lack of developed urban nodes hinders network connectivity and enhances capacity bottlenecks. In June of 2024, the revised TEN-T Regulation has been adopted. This signifies the ongoing pivotal role that urban nodes have in the functioning of the single market. The interconnection of urban nodes is fundamental for building economic value both in terms of seamless transport of freight and passengers and also for enhancing sustainable mobility. However, organising investments for new infrastructure might be challenging as many stakeholders are involved, and the urban capacity is limited.

This issue of Network Industries Quarterly focuses on the role of urban nodes in the Single European Transport Area (SETA). In his contribution entitled Urban Nodes –Predict, Provide, Plan, Prioritise and Prevent, Alan O’Brien gives a clear picture of the context of urban nodes in Europe while illustrating the main measures needed to build a reliable urban node. Tiina Ruohonen’s contribution entitled The governance of TEN-T urban nodes discusses the different governance mechanisms of urban nodes in Europe, suggesting to foster those collaborations that are already in place. The importance of governance is once again highlighted in Thomas Geier’s piece A Governance Framework for the Urban Nodes by the Urban Nodes. Here, the author stresses the fact that no one-size-fits-all governance model exists, suggesting more robust communication among those actors that already facilitate inter-communal transport policy. The fourth contribution, entitled TEN-T Urban Nodes as Functional Entities by Lucian Zagan, emphasises the need for integration between urban nodes and the TEN-T network while considering challenges for urban nodes, such as governance, funding, cooperation and policy coherence.

Editors of this issue:

Matthias Finger & Elodie Petrozziello

Rail Capacity Management

Rail has a key role to play in making transport more efficient and sustainable in the EU and elsewhere. However, increasing passenger and cargo volumes require investment in infrastructure, and also more efficient track capacity management. This issue of Network Industries Quarterly focuses on the capacity dimension of railway infrastructure, and in particular on how to increase capacity for both passenger and freight railway undertakings (RUs), as availability of reliable railway infrastructure capacity is a condition for the much-needed modal shift from road (and air) to rail. Needless to say, capacity management takes place in a situation of growing competition for track and it is necessary to ensure non-discriminatory treatment of competing RUs when it comes to track availability and usage. Somewhat paradoxically, this gives the infrastructure manager (IM) an important and more active role than was previously the case, and at the same time requires an independent regulator to not only supervise non-discrimination but also ensure that the IM stays within its legal mandate, not to mention the fact that capacity needs to be planned, financed and built well ahead of time.

In his contribution entitled Regulating active infrastructure management in railways, Juan Montero shows the growing importance of infrastructure managers in capacity management, and also the need to ensure that they act in the public interest.

Dariush Kowsar and Alain Quinet’s paper on Capacity Management as a cost-effective way to boost Rail Traffic in Europe shows how a combination of careful planning and digitalisation can contribute to more efficient investment, improved network utilisation and overall lower costs of the available capacity.

Paolo Beria explores the relationship between Track access charges and capacity management. More precisely, he argues for including capacity pricing elements such as track access charges and illustrates this with the example of Italian high-speed railways.

Martin Aronsson addresses the issue of Flexibility in the railway capacity allocation process and argues for some slack in the capacity allocation planning process as capacity usage by train operating companies can never be fully planned ahead of time.

Matthias Finger

Publication Director

Türkiye as an infrastructure pivot?

Between the 2 nd century BC and the 15 th century, the Silk Road, ending in Istanbul, was the main traditional route between China and the Middle East. Europe has developed since the Renaissance and Istanbul (then Constantinople) and Türkiye have evolved into an ever more important trading and commercial hub between the East and the West up to today. Since the turn of the century, the Turkish government has massively invested in Türkiye’s transport and energy infrastructure, to the point that the country is ideally positioned to play a globally unique role as a transport and increasingly an energy hub. Moreover, because of the war in Ukraine and conflict in the Middle East, along with a new geopolitical situation pitching the ‘West against the rest,’ this process has been accelerated and put Türkiye in the position of an infrastructure pivot between the East and the West. From being the terminus of the Silk Road, Türkiye is now at its core again.

In this issue of Network Industries Quarterly, we present and discuss the gradual ascent of Türkiye to become a global or at least a regional ‘infrastructure pivot,’ as we call it. The three articles that make up this issue illustrate the pivotal role of Türkiye in aviation – both through its national flag carrier, Turkish Airlines, and even more so through its newly built Istanbul airport – in gas and railways. These sectors are in different stages of development, with aviation clearly being the most advanced infrastructure pivot, while the potential of railways as a regional infrastructure pivot still needs to be realised. In this introductory article, we briefly highlight and discuss the four main factors that have been contributing and continue to contribute to this evolution.

Muzaffer Eroglu

Matthias Finger

ATM Financing

Air Traffic Management (ATM) is a set of services which every state must provide for the safe and efficient operation of air traffic. Today, it is almost entirely financed by user fees according to the ‘user pays’ principle. Until today, the ‘user’ has always been assumed to be the airspace user, normally an airline. This system is now coming under pressure. The current Single European Sky (SES) regulation is built on the assumption that air traffic in Europe continually increases. Therefore, the financing of ATM is secured by increasing revenue due to higher traffic volumes. Technological progress and efficiency gains should lead to a reduced cost and a lower environmental footprint of aviation while increasing safety and capacity. Two crises – the financial and banking crisis of 2008 and more recently the COVID-19 pandemic – show that the assumptions behind this regulatory framework are wrong. Additionally, there is the question of who the actual ‘users’ are. Does ATM only serve paying airlines or are there some services which are provided in the public interest? This issue of Network Industries Quarterly explores this last question by way of three original contributions.

The first contribution by Matthias Finger, from the European University Institute, discusses possible arguments that could be used when defining ATM in the public interest, notably when comparing ATM with rail and electricity infrastructure.

In the second contribution, Alex Bristol, Myriam Käser and Marita Lintener, from Skyguide, observe the ‘dual soul’ of Air Navigation Service Providers, providing both services to commercial airlines while simultaneously responding to domestic (national) objectives. Consequently, they explore core services of general interest (CSGI) as an option for financing portions of ATM activities.

In the third contribution, Kalman Seregelyes, from Hungarocontrol, asks whether the current EU performance scheme for air navigation services is still fit for purpose and argues in favour of a new traffic risk sharing scheme which could be better suited for traffic fluctuations such as were experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

                                                                                                                                    Matthias Finger

Publication Director

Mobility Data Spaces

Transforming Europe into a climate neutral economy by 2050 in line with the European Green Deal places a particular responsibility on the transport sector, which accounts for a quarter of the Union’s total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Specifically, transport will have to collectively reduce its GHG emissions by 90% by mid-century compared to 1990 levels. This will require advancing digitalisation and the use of data in all modes of transport, including passenger and freight segments. Notwithstanding, data availability, access and exchange in the transport sector today continue to be hampered due to unclear regulatory conditions, the lack of an EU market for data provision, the absence of an obligation to collect and share data, incompatible tools and systems for data collection and sharing, different standards, or data sovereignty concerns, among others.

The European strategy for data aims to establish a single market for data where data can be accessed and used efficiently. This will include the creation of a common European mobility data space to facilitate access, pooling, and sharing of transport and mobility data. In this special issue of the Network Industries Quarterly, invited authors critically discuss the opportunities and challenges of building such a mobility data space.

The first contribution by Almasy and de Linde discusses the transformative potential of common European data spaces, and highlights the benefits and challenges involved in implementing them, with a focus on the mobility and transport sector.

The second contribution by Bücking, Drees, Gavaud, Gruber, Hoffmann, Thelisson and van Veenendaal tries to define possible roles of National Access Points in the European Mobility Data Space.

Valkokari explores three layers of data sharing in the context of urban mobility by means of an illustrative case study.

Antoniola analyses Mobility Data Spaces from different angles (EU, national and local) with a focus on the role of local governments.

                                                                                                                                    Matthias Finger

Publication Director

Regulating Digitalization in Türkiye

The Law No. 6563 on the Regulation of Electronic Commerce (the “E-commerce Law”) of Türkiye has been considered inefficient to address the problems created in the face of rapidly changing technology and digitalization. It was amended with the Law on the Regulation of Electronic Commerce Amendment Law (the “Amending Law”) adopted by the Turkish Parliament on 1 July 2022. Influenced by the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act, the Amending Law was published in the Official Gazette on 7 July 2022 and was entered into force on 1 January 2023.

The new Law aims to protect the competitive environment, prohibit unfair commercial practices and monopolization, and ensure a healthy growth of the e-commerce sector in Türkiye. Yet, it brings radical changes to the previous legislation. The operations of sector players will be significantly affected by the new definitions and by the new obligations and restrictions that were introduced and imposed in the Amending Law.

Separately, the Draft Digital Markets Bill to amend the Law on Protection of Competition (the “Competition Law”) was published in October 2022. Amendments that come with the Draft Bill aim to regulate and protect the fair and competitive environment in the digital markets while ensuring further compliance with the EU legislation.

This special issue of the Network Industries Quarterly features five short articles which mainly explore the potential effects of the changes in the E-commerce Law and the Competition Law. This issue also presents an analysis on the recent developments and challenges in the regulation of data privacy in Türkiye.

The first contribution by Ekingen aims to explain how the amendments to the regulation of e-commerce have affected online multi-sided platforms and their current position in digital markets in Türkiye.

Ikiler and Yüksel compare the Proposed Amendment with the DMA and the German Competition Act to identify procedural, substantive and fundamental differences between those legislations and also discuss whether and for which circumstances there would be a need for the Proposed Amendment despite the E-Commerce Law.

Arslan and Tanoğlu also compare the Amendment Law with EU regulations. Given the fact that the market in Türkiye is still growing, the authors discuss whether these regulations risk over-regulating the market.

Girgin, Horozoğlu, and Çal examine the effect of the E-commerce Law and Draft Digital Markets Bill on Competition Law on e-commerce platforms and market competition.

Ersoy focuses on the regulation of data privacy in Türkiye. Ersoy examines recent developments and challenges, and by taking previous experiences in the field of data protection law in Türkiye, the author provides reflections for the future.

Deniz Ece Dalgic, PhD
Manager, Istanbul Center for Regulation

Towards a smart and sustainable single European transport area : an assessment of the past 10 years of EU regulation

For more than a decade, hundreds of experts have gathered at the hills overlooking Florence to analyse the evolution of European transport policy and regulation at the call of the Florence School of Regulation (FSR). This book reflects the discussions in Florence, and more broadly, it documents the evolution of transport regulation in the European Union. The purpose of this book is to share the knowledge we at FSR Transport have built as privileged observers by bringing to the forefront the most interesting pieces in our “Observers”. In particular, we have selected the more relevant valuative pieces opening our Observers over the last decade whilst organising them according to the topic they address in four different blocks. We open with the rail block, as rail was the original topic of most of our Forums. Aviation has also received a lot of our attention, and in particular, Air Traffic Management and the Single European Sky, which in turn, have their own dedicated sub-block. We close with a block on intermodality, which has drawn increasing attention. The texts have not been edited for the book other than minor temporal references to improve readability. We have included as opening pieces our “Manifesto for the Next Five Years of EU Regulation of Transport”, published in November 2019 ahead of the start of the von der Leyen Commission’s mandate, and an update for a post-COVID-19 recovery, published in June 2020. In these documents, a more comprehensive vision of the challenges in EU transport regulation is provided.

Editor: Matthias Finger, Juan Montero and Teodora Serafimova