This special issue of Network Industries Quarterly deals with a very important and timely topic: the energy transition and sustainability more generally.

Digital platforms: The new network industries? This special issue of NIQ explores and further clarifies the conceptu­alisation (and subsequent regulation) of digital platforms (or elements of them) as the “new network industries.” This idea was put forward in the book...

European rail: more central than ever This special issue of NIQ concludes the EU’s ‘year of rail.’ Over the past 30 years the EU has driven the transformation of the European rail sector with the aim of making it more efficient and more competitive vis-à-vis road. It...

Investment has always been a challenge in the network industries. Since the 1990s liberalisation has exacerbated this challenge, owing to the different time horizons between the interests of the private sector, the long-term nature of the infrastructure assets and their public service nature. Climate change and the need to decarbonise the infrastructures, as well as the recent focus on digitalisation have only added to the investment challenges in the different network industries.