Combining Market Opening for High-speed Rail Services and Public-Private Partnership A New Deal for Newcomers

摘要

High-speed rail has been quasi exclusively developed by national rail companies or administrations whose responsibilities were to plan, design, build, commission, operate and maintain the new railroad. Since the construction of the Channel Tunnel opened into service in 1994, the private sector has been more and more deeply involved in the building of high-speed rail lines. New rules had to be set up and new competences that formerly were in the hands of the national rail companies and administrations had to be transferred to the private companies that are new players in Private-Public Partnerships (PPPs). New disciplines had also to be developed in modeling, risk assessment, project financing and other soft areas. If high-speed rail technology is now mature, the HSR project management has still a long way to go before reaching its promising future. The present document lists the fields where private involvement requires specific tools and the on-going researches currently carried out in this perspective.