Abstract

According to the railways liberalization process promoted by the European Commission, the network manager is progressively induced to achieve cost reduction objectives. The work analyses the expected impact of these prescriptions on the railways' network quality. The deepening of the Community normative framework permits to understand how the incentive system for the industry operators should be adapted to the new normative and regulatory scenario. Our study proposes a change in the incentive mechanisms aimed at considering the peculiar nature and the particular structural configuration of the industry which, as is wellknown, presents potential problems from the safety point of view. As a conclusion, we underline the necessity to carefully analyse the lessons learned from the British railways reform in order to avoid another similar regulatory failure.