“In Europe, railway transport is dealing with increasing costs, road transport competition, lack of innovation and investments. Also, small operators continue to be absorbed by state-owned undertakings and the railway sector lacks competition. If this tendency continues, the European railways will become irrelevant to freight and passenger transport needs, but if we reform on an European basis, we will have competition, investments, innovation and growth”, declared Lord Tony Berkeley, Chairman of the European Rail Freight Group-UK (ERFA), at the Railway Days – the Wider Black Sea Area Railway Investment Summit.
He underlined that presently, Europe registers a downfall. In 2007, in Europe, there were more private undertakings, yet in 2014 there are more state undertakings. Thus, “the consolidation of state monopoly undertakings strangles competition. In the competition policy, no company should have more than 30% of a defined market. On this basis, every member state fails”, pointed out Berkeley.
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