Dear UTSG members,
following the Commission proposals for a new directive relating "the
allocation of railways infrastructure capacity and for levying charges..."
(July 1998), an intense debate on the issue of the "Autorizhed Applicant" is
being taking place.
Following the Article 2 of the Proposal, Authorized Applicant (A.A.) means
"a person or legal entity whit a commercial or public service interest in
procuring infrastructure capacity for the operation of a railway service,
who has complied with the necessary requirements to enable him to seek to
book capacity and who wishes to reserve the use of capacity on the
infrastructure. This shall include licensed railway undertakings"
It is notable that the definition of A.A. would enable also public
territorial bodies like "Regions" - that are not railway undertakings (e.g.
Laender in Germany, etc.) - to book capacity for a rail service. Then,
these bodies should apply to a licensed railway undertaking to operate the
service in fact.
The EU Parliament accepted the view of the Commission, approving the
definition, whereas the Transport Group of the EU Council rejected the
proposal, amending the text.
What are, in your opinion, the arguments pro or against the A.A.? What are
the possible implications of adopting the A.A. within the difficult railways
privatization process in Europe (paying particular attention to the filed of
passenger transport)?
What are other conditions (manners of subsidizing the Infrastructure
managers, contractual and regulatory framework, market structure of the
supply, etc.) under which it would be possible to obtain more significant
results from introducing the A.A.?
I would be very interested (but not only!) in hearing opinions of U.K.
people, used to deal with a railway system in which competition has been
more developed than in other countries!
Hoping that this question could open a little debate among UTSG railways
experts, I remain.
Vittorio Torbianelli
Università degli Studi di Trieste
ISTIEE
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