In most network industries, new dynamics are leading to an unprecedented opening up to competition and private sector participation. With the development of a single European market, the in-stages liberalisation process of public utilities has spread to almost all sectors. However, the water supply and sanitation (WSS) sector is considered somehow different and it has been excluded until recently from the restructuring processes achieved in other sectors.
Water and Liberalisation: European Water Scenarios presents a better understanding of the specific demands of the WSS sector. Covering...

This book concerns the regulation of transport within a European context, covering air, inland waterways, rail, road passenger and freight, urban public transport, and short sea shipping. All these sectors have experienced substantial changes over the last two decades, in terms of ownership, competition and liberalisation, and the book explores the main transformations and their impacts. The authors address these issues, with a specific focus on the effects of the organisation and regulation of transport systems on their performance. They also provide timely policy recommendations, including...

The European railway sector has undergone profound and predominantly institutional changes over the past 20 years, due to the initiatives of the European Commission. This book constitutes a first systematic assessment and account of the recent transformations of the industry along a series of critical yet contentious issues such as competition, unbundling, regulation, access charging, standards and interoperability, and public-private partnerships. It also covers the main railways sectors including passenger transport, high speed and freight.

Those of us who have watched the process have said that the Earth Summit has failed ... Multinational corporations, the United States, Japan, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund have got away with what they always wanted ... the Summit has ensured increased domination by those who already have power. Worse still, it has robbed the poor of the little power they had. It has made them victims of a market economy that has thus far threatened our planet ... few negotiators realised how critical their decisions are to our generation. By failing to address such fundamental issues as...

This groundbreaking book offers a critical and wide-ranging assessment of the global air transport liberalization process over the past 40 years. This compilation of world experts on air transport economics, policy, and regulation is timely and significant, considering that air transport is currently facing a series of new challenges due to technological changes, the emergence of new markets, and increased security concerns.

Taking a global approach, this insightful Handbook brings together leading researchers to provide a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art in railway regulation with a particular focus on countries that rely heavily on railways for transportation links, such as Japan, India and France. Despite numerous liberalisation attempts in recent years, the railway sector is still excessively complex, with regulations varying throughout the world. The Handbook on Railway Regulation gathers, for the first time, these various approaches and practices, using a historical and systematic approach...

Providing a coherent and multidisciplinary approach to digitalization, this Modern Guide aims to systematize how the digitalization process affects infrastructure-based industries, including telecommunications, transport, energy, water and postal services. This important book reviews the literature on how digital technologies can impact infrastructure design, construction and maintenance costs, with specific references for each industry. Contributors analyse how digitalization is disrupting traditional infrastructure managers in terms of capacity management and traffic flows as well as...