The future of rail: regulation & competition for an innovative industry

Bruno Liebhaberg is Director General of the think tank Centre on Regulation in Europe (CERRE) which he founded in 2010. From 2018 to 2021, he was also the first Chairman of the European Union Observatory on the Online Platform Economy. He is also an Honorary Professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles’ Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (SBS-EM ULB) where he taught from 1979 to 2018. Earlier in his career, he advised former European Commission President Jacques Delors on industry and R&D matters related to the completion of the EU Single Market. He holds a Master in Management Sciences from SBS-EM ULB and a Ph.D. in Industrial Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

The mission of the Unit is to establish an interoperable and safe Single European Rail area and to manage the relationships with the European Union Agency for Railways and the Shift-To-Rail Joint undertaking. This includes in particular: pursuing the conditions to achieve interoperability and safety in the rail systems across the EU, in particular in partnership with the European Union Agency for Railways; and ensuring the delivery of a long term R&I programme with the rail industry which supports the Commission’s vision for the future of rail and broader transport, competitiveness, environmental and social policy objectives.

Mr Fitch is the former Deputy Head of Cabinet of Siim Kallas, Vice-President and Commissioner for Transport where Mr. Fitch is responsible for land transport, security and state aids, inter alia. He was also the coordinator of the White Paper of the Future of Transport. Mr Fitch studied mathematics and law at Cambridge, was a lawyer at Herbert Smith and then moved on to the UK civil service in 1993. He joined the European Commission’s Legal Service in 1999. Before joining the cabinet of Mr. Kallas in 2004, he was a Member of Cabinet of Vice-President Kinnock, responsible for Administration.

Chris Nash is a CERRE Research Fellow and a Research Professor at the Institute for Transport Studies (ITS) of the University of Leeds.

He was previously Director of the ITS for seven years.

He has coordinated and contributed to a wide range of EU research projects, including the SUSTRAIL project.

He has advised many organisations, including the EC’s High Level Group on Infrastructure Charging, the OECD, and the Transport and European Union Select Committees of the British Parliament.

Andrew is Professor of Transport Performance and Economics at the Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds. He leads the Institute’s Rail Research Group. His research is focused on: infrastructure access pricing and marginal cost research; rail regulation and the impact of rail reforms on economic efficiency; cost and efficiency modelling; and modelling the economic impact of rail technology innovations. He has published important work in these areas and has led or is leading a wide range of research projects.

He is also academic advisor to water regulator Ofwat on econometric benchmarking, a member of the advisory board of the Italian Transport Regulation Authority, and an Editor of the Journal of Transport Economics and Policy.

Andrew has a visiting research position at the Centre for Transport Studies (Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) and VTI) in Stockholm and at the University of Masaryk, Czech Republic. He teaches at undergraduate level on Advanced Microeconomics and Public Enterprise and Regulation and teaches / or has taught at Masters level on Economics of Transport Regulation and Public Transport Planning and Management.

Yves Crozet is a researcher associated with CERRE and is emeritus professor at Sciences Po in Lyon.

An economist specialising in the transport economy, he is a member of the Laboratory of Urban Planning, Transport, Economics (LAET) at Lyon University, where he was director from 1997 to 2007.

From 2010 to 2015, he was Secretary General of the World Conference on Transport Research (WCTR).

Since 2009, he has been President of the think tank French Road Union (URF). He is also a member of the quality control committee for the transport services of Ile-de-France and is a member of the CITEPA administrative council and the Conseil National Routier (CNR).

In 2016, he published a book in Editions Economica titled “Hyper-mobility and public policy: a new era?”