DEREGULATION; LIBERALISATION; PRIVATISATION

This presentation refers to several European and British aspects of rail deregulation, liberalisation, and privatisation. The European Community's (EC's) two key transport policy principles are liberalisation and harmonisation, both of which are being developed for international transport, while each EC country looks after its national transport needs. The EC perceives rail to have a key role, but also at present to have poorly defined objectives, be state controlled, and lack internal competition. It is actively promoting proposals for the railways, mostly incorporated in Directives. The European Commission Green Paper on Transport and the Environment was published early in 1992, and aims for sustainable mobility and constraining the growth of road and air traffic. Thus the balance will be shifted from road and air to rail transport. The principal implications of this shift for UK policy are that the British rail sector will need more infrastructure to carry the required increased rail traffic, and that this infrastructure needs to be planned by central government. Whether it is developed by a privatised or publicly run British Rail is of secondary importance. For the covering abstract see IRRD 855443.