Measuring market power of rail incumbents

Abstract

The aim of this article is to assess the market power of the state-owned incumbents within the open-access lines in Europe and compare it among themselves. This article investigates three open-access lines in Europe: Prague-Ostrava line (in the Czech Republic), Vienna-Salzburg line (in Austria) and Bratislava-Košice (in Slovakia). The market power assessment of each of the state-owned incumbents on these lines is based on their market shares, average revenues per passenger-kilometre, whether there is a vertical separation of the infrastructure owner and railway service provider and the role of state intervention. Our results show that the state-owned incumbent in the Czech Republic on the Prague-Ostrava line has the lowest market power in comparison to other investigated open-access lines.