European railways have been reorganized to allow for market competition. Thus, train services have been vertically separated from infrastructure management which allows several operators to compete. Different ways have emerged for vertical separation, capacity allocation and track access charges. This paper reviews important deregulation aspects from a number of European countries. The study compares how competition has been introduced and regulated with focus on describing capacity allocation and track access charges. Although guided by the same European legislation, we conclude that the studied railways have different deregulation outcomes, e.g. market organization, capacity allocation. Besides, few countries have so far managed to have efficient and transparent capacity allocation. Although allowed by the legislation, market-based allocation is absent or never used. To foster more competition which can yield substantial social benefits, the survey indicates that most European railways still need to develop and experiment with more efficient and transparent capacity allocation procedures.

欧洲铁路已经重组，以允许市场竞争。因此，火车服务已经与基础设施管理垂直分离，这使得几家运营商可以竞争。垂直分离、容量分配和轨道访问收费出现了不同的方式。本文回顾了一些欧洲国家放松管制的重要方面。该研究比较了竞争是如何引入和监管的，重点是描述容量分配和跟踪访问费用。尽管以相同的欧洲立法为指导，但我们得出结论，所研究的铁路具有不同的放松管制结果，例如市场组织、容量分配。此外，迄今为止，很少有国家能够实现高效和透明的产能分配。虽然法律允许，基于市场的分配不存在或从未使用过。为了促进能够产生巨大社会效益的竞争，调查表明，大多数欧洲铁路仍需要开发和试验更有效和透明的运力分配程序。