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Article: Rail Freight in Europe: different perspectives on achieving higher service levels.(Notes and Comments)
- Article from:
- Transportation Journal
- Article date:
- September 22, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 American Society of Transportation and Logistics, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In 1991 the European Commission (EC), the legislative body in the European Union, initiated the liberalization process of the European railways (EC 2001). Its aim was to promote and develop rail freight and intermodal services as an alternative for and in addition to road transport, to cope with growing environmental and congestion problems (Wiegmans and Donders 2007). One of the EU Council Directives (91/440) requires separate accounting systems for the fixed infrastructure and rail operating equipment. In the years following, many European railways were split into track operating companies (e.g., NetRail in the U.K., ProRail in the Netherlands, and DBNetz in Germany), ...