REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

摘要

Since the second half of the 20th century, inland public carriers of passengers and freight, particularly the railways, have had to maintain services which are not commercially viable and have had their tariff policies strictly controlled. In the 1960s, rail began a sharp decline in the face of competition from the motor car. In France, for example, use of regional rail services fell from 6.4 to 5.2 billion passenger kilometres between 1964 and 1969. At the time, the State paid practically no subsidies to SNCF; ten years later, subsidies relating to public service obligations (PSO) were around 2 billion francs. Inland public transport services have become structurally loss-making everywhere in Europe. Carriers in the sector have therefore had to ask States to either abolish these obligations or to compensate for the costs on a more systematic basis.