Itf Round Tables Competitive Interaction Between Airports Airlines And High Speed Rail

This round table proceedings examines whether and how airports should be regulated to contain market power. It determines which approaches are likely to work best and also assesses strategies for managing greenhouse gas emissions including the alternative of high-speed rail.

This paper summarizes, structures, and provides some context for discussions of the Round Table mentioned in the title. The first part of the paper focuses on sources of market power for airports and on policy responses. When an airport is congested and competition with other airports is limited, regulation may be justified, and the dual till approach likely works best. In other cases, however, policy should establish conditions for competition to emerge as much as possible, instead of attempting to design a general regulatory framework. The second part of the paper discusses elements of climate change policy in aviation. Including aviation in emission trading schemes is a sensible idea, but should not be expected to produce major cuts in CO2 emissions from aviation; containing its growth possibly is a more realistic, yet ambitious and not necessarily socially optimal, objective. High-speed rail is justified in some situations, but is not a general alternative for air travel and certainly not a second-best way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from aviation.

This report reviews international experience in reconciling planning and environmental constraints with demand for airport capacity and the potential benefits in terms of productivity and growth from developing international airline services.

This report examines the key factors that drive the costs of high-speed rail investment and reviews the economic benefits delivered by high-speed rail services on the basis of experience in countries that have developed large high-speed rail networks.

This International Transport Forum Round Table identifies critical competition issues and appropriate regulatory responses. In particular it examines whether very large multinational transport and logistics firms escape regulatory oversight because of their sheer scale.

The report examines the nature of risks and uncertainty associated with different types of public-private partnership projects and the practical consequences of transferring risks to private partners.

Discussion at this Roundtable focused on how to achieve effective independent regulation and how to reconcile independence with the legitimate control of policy by the executive part of government.

This report examines the extent to which shortcomings in cost-benefit analysis for tranport projects can be addressed, focusing on equity and distributional impacts, agglomeration benefits and external costs. It also shows how best to present guidance on project selection to decision makers.