How can Liberalisation of Transport Contribute to Sustainability

Panel: Panel 5: Land use,Transportation and infrastructure (urban and regional planning, approaches to change in well entrenched systems)

Author:
Adriaan Perrels, TNO Inro

Abstract

Similar to the conversions of ownership and management of telecommunication infrastructure and energy infrastructure (public) transport facilities are facing significant changes in ownership and management in the EU and adjacent countries. Various countries, for example the UK and Sweden have already changed a great deal. Other EU countries hardly started yet.

The motivations behind liberalisation of infrastructure are totally detached from sustainability objectives. The liberalisation process itself is fuelled by the hopes for reduction of public transport subsidies and better utilisation of the growth potential of air transport in a modern society. Well, at least the latter has certainly come true.

Liberalised markets will only contribute to sustainability of the objectives happen to coincide. Provided countries take sustainability objectives seriously and observing the far from automatic sustainability trends in liberalised markets, sustainability should receive extensive and explicit attention in and after the conversion process. Interestingly, the transport sector can also draw on the experiences of the energy sector.

The base line is that liberalisation in itself may be a good thing. However, both from a social-economic point of view and a sustainability point of view it depends on what public authorities allow to happen. In fact it is about re-regulation instead of deregulation.

This paper will describe the potentially good and bad things of liberalisation. The paper will argue that proper reregulation and smart use of new technologies may bring about a much larger coincidence of objectives without giving up the original idea of obtaining a more efficient and flexible transport infrastructure. Some international comparisons and potentials will be shown.