Europe welcomes HSR competiton

It had to happen. Competition is logical and sometimes beneficial. It is happening on international runs in Europe.

You can read the entire AP story here.

International passenger rail services in the European Union will open to cross-border competition by 2010, giving passengers more choice and railways new tools to fight stiff competition from airlines.

New guidelines approved by the European Parliament on Tuesday will be reviewed in 2012 to see if domestic train lines should also be liberalized, the EU assembly said.

A proposal to open those lines to foreign competition by 2017 has been rejected by countries where state companies dominate the market, such as France, Belgium or Austria.

Smaller EU states, such as Luxembourg and some Central European nations, also fear their national providers could fold if a giant company, such as Germany’s DB, entered their domestic market.

But competition will increase on international lines, where any company from any of the EU’s 27 member states will be able to run services.

Filed under: International High Speed Rail