Regionalization of railway regional passenger transport in France and Italy.

The framework of regional passenger transport in France and Italy is described. The final aim of the reform is to offer a credible modal alternative to car mobility in urban areas by a better efficiency and services of rail transport in regions. This reform is linked with the development of an urban and regional mobility towards sustainable development. The impact of the regionalization reform for both countries is outlined. Regionalization is based on a double negotiation process: first, with the central State, which deals with the determining of financial grants due to this transfer of competence without transfer of charges. Secondly, it deals with negotiations for establishing a convention Transport Authority / Regions and Operators. Organization and financing, communication, pricing, and quality control will be responsibilities of the regions. Regionalization is then facing three issues: (1) competition - for France, the SNCF remains the only operator in terms of the French Law of Orientation of National Transport (LOTI or Loi d'Orientation des Transports Interieurs), (2) support from the State - the regionalization in France and Italy is characterized by little involvement of the central government, which tries, in the reform, to shirk these obligations rather than give, like in Germany, a signal and incentives for an efficient offer of railway service in Regions, and (3) renewal of the institutional framework of transport authorities - French and Italian perspectives towards regionalization are then facing an institutional issue in that the sharing out of responsibilities leads to many major institutional disturbances in the field of public transport. For France, public urban transport is a responsiblity of cities whereas interurban buses are responsibilities of "Departements" ("Counties"). This French compartmentalized management of public transport is considered a hindrance for an efficient supply of public transport in regions. It is suggested that it would be better to have global organization of public transport, like in the German regionalization reform, which has stressed out the role of a cooperative institution, the Zweckverbande. For the covering abstract see ITRD E126595.