The Reform of the Railway Sector and its Achievements

In the last three decades, state-owned railways have been reformed in many countries. The Japanese National Railways (JNR) was the first railway system to be divided and corporatized in 1987. In the following year, the Swedish State Railways (SJ) was reformed by introducing vertical separation, and this case had much influence on the stipulation of wider EU railway policies. Although the EU railway policies were stipulated based on regional context specificities, these policies and their results have been discussed even in some non-EU countries and have tended to have large impacts on the railway sector of those countries. Nevertheless, there are several other countries where the railways were reformed by different models and could improve the performance by certain measures such as inviting private investments, avoiding cross-subsidies among different divisions, liberalising the management of railways, and introducing intra-modal competition by an appropriate means. 

The railway sector is required to compete with other modes of transport, especially roads to attain environmental regions. When it comes to railway reform, it is essential for policy makers and experts to learn lessons from other countries’ experiences. Based on the background given, this issue aims to understand the lessons from past railway reforms which the sector has experienced under different circumstances. Specifically, besides railway reforms in Europe with a focus on the UK, the issue discusses railway reforms in four other countries: Japan, USA, Russia, and Mexico. 

We hope that you find these contributions interesting. You can also find the complete archive of previous issues of NIQ in our new website at www.network-industries.org/

Are you also interested in governance of infrastructures in cities? If yes, please visit the IGLUS platform at www.iglus.org which is our dedicated platform to envision Innovative Governance of Large Urban Systems! In IGLUS, We have currently launched a MOOC on Management of Urban Infrastructures which is a free course diffused through the Coursera platform. For more information about this online course, please visit us at www.iglus.org/

The challenges of digitalization and the use of data

This Issue of the Network Industries Quarterly focuses on the challenges of digitalization and the use of data. Some of the best papers presented at the 5th Conference on the Regulation of Infrastructures are presented in this issue of the Network Industries Quarterly. 

Selected academics and practitioners have been invited to Florence on June 24th 2016 at the Annual Conference of the Florence School of Regulation to discuss the latest developments in the regulation of different network industries, namely transport, energy, telecoms and water distribution. The fifth edition of the Conference on the Regulation of Infrastructures had a special focus on digitalization and the use of data, which is a topic that cuts across all network industries and is highly debated. 10 papers have been presented in five round table sessions, each dedicated to one of the discussed industries. Moreover, all the research areas of the Florence School of Regulation (Communications and Media, Energy, Transport, and Water regulation) were present with a dedicated session, and they also all attended a joint session on cross-cutting issue. 

We hope that you find these contributions interesting. You can also find the complete archive of previous issues of NIQ in our new website at www.network-industries.org/ 

Are you also interested in governance of infrastructures in cities? If yes, please visit the IGLUS platform at www.iglus.org which is our dedicated platform to envision Innovative Governance of Large Urban Systems! In IGLUS, We have currently launched a MOOC on Management of Urban Infrastructures which is a free course diffused through the Coursera platform. For more information about this online course, please visit us at www.iglus.org

Financing of infrastructures in Latin America

This Issue of the Network Industries Quarterly focuses on Financing of infrastructures in Latin Amercia. The goal of this issue of the Network Industries Quarterly is to identify the conditions for the capital and money markets to increase their participation in the infrastructure financing process. Furthermore, the chapters illustrate examples of different forms of infrastructure financing. 

The first article by Jorge Alcaraz and Adriana Castro provides an overview on foreign direct investment as a source for infrastructure building, focusing on how governments from Latin American countries could improve the effects of these investments. The second article by Francisco Javier Valderrey and Miguel Ángel Montoya presents an overview of Chinese investments in Latin America and the challenges and consequences of this. In the third article Luis Arturo Bernal Ponce and Ricardo Pérez Navarro analyse the effect of public and private investment in infrastructure on economic growth in emerging countries, using Mexico from 2006 to 2016 as the case study. Brazil is instead the case study used by Joisa Dutra and Vivian Figer to shade lights on the future of electric utilities in Latin America. Finally, the article by Irina Alberro and Doreen Vorndran presents an innovative mechanism of financing social development: Social Impact Bonds have received attention across the world and in Mexico to address the challenges that youth faces. 

You can find the complete archive of previous issues of NIQ in our new website at www.network-industries.org/ 

Are you also interested in governance of infrastructures in cities? If yes, please visit the IGLUS platform at www.iglus.org which is our dedicated platform to envision Innovative Governance of Large Urban Systems! In IGLUS, We have currently launched a MOOC on Management of Urban Infrastructures which is a free course diffused through the Coursera platform. For more information about this online course, please visit us at www.iglus.org.

Achievements and current challenges regarding public utilities’ regulation in Brazil

This special issue of Network Industries Quarterly is dedicated to the European Green Deal and its implications for the transport sector. In its long-term decarbonisation strategy ‘A Clean Planet for All,’ the European Commission paints a clear picture of the vast transformations that will have to take place across all sectors of the economy for Europe to become climate neutral by 2050. In its subsequent European Green Deal, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen reinforces this ambition and pledges to enshrine the climate neutrality objective into legislation.

For transport, which accounts for a quarter of the EU’s total greenhouse gas emissions, achieving the climate neutrality objectives will require a 90% reduction of the sector’s emissions by 2050 compared to 1990 levels, with sizeable contributions across all modes. Our invited contributors take a closer look at the concrete examples of rail, aviation, intermodal transport and Mobility-as-a-Service solutions, as well as at the increasing coupling and interdependence between the transport and the energy sectors.

The first contribution, authored by van Baal and Finger, introduces the concept of the ‘energy-mobility system’, underpinned by the electrification of transport services, and discusses the need for an integrated approach to policy and governance, especially for successfully managing the sustainability transition.

Haunold emphasises the need for a level playing field between all modes of transport as a key precondition to the achievement of the European Green Deal objectives. She argues that rail transport ought to be placed at the core all of initiatives undertaken in the transport sector, including capital expenditure, financing, funding and subsidy systems, given that it represents the most climate-friendly mode of mass transport in the EU.

Arnold attempts to provide a legal basis and puts forward some ideas for advancing the propositions of von der Leyen’s European Green Deal in relation to the aviation sector. He argues that if there is leadership at the EU level, undisputed priorities and concepts based on the right legal basis and clear information, innovative policies may be developed to meet the challenges we are facing.

Serafimova discusses the current challenges to urban mobility and argues that the Covid-19 pandemic may, in fact, serve as an opportunity for the advancement of the Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) ecosystem and the demonstration of its true value in supporting the Commission’s Green Deal objectives.