Page 19 - Annual report - Araf 2014

19 Araf 2014 annual report
3. FROM ARAF TO ARAFER: LOOKING TO 2015-2016
OUR NEW SCOPE OF ACTION
The French legislation tasked Araf with the mission of contributing to the monitoring of the national railway system, of public service activities and competitive ones.
The « Recast » directive entered into force on 16 June 2015 and enlarged our scope by entrusting us with the remit of monitoring this segment of activities. Brief recap on these new strategic developments:
SETTING UP A MARKET MONITORING
Araf will be setting up a railway market monitoring by the end of 2016. The objective is two-fold:
• to present the monitoring indicators
on the opening of the rail market to
competition to a wide audience;
• to deine railway performance
indicators, in particular by taking otherEuropeanrailwayoperatorsinto consideration.
This monitoring will increase our understanding of operators’ costs
and practices therefore allowing us to improve regulatory methods and to supply reliable and objective information to all stakeholders (railway undertakings; infrastructure managers; State). It will also inform the public debate with the aim of making rail transport eficient
and competitive versus other modes of transportation.
MONITORING PRICING
Araf guarantees fair access to railway infrastructures, fair competition and no cross-subsidies between competitive activities and public service activities. The infrastructure manager is in a situation of natural monopoly and should be urged to seek cost reduction and eficient management.
Since Araf was set up ive years ago,
we verify that charging is indeed cost- oriented. The Rail Reform of 4 August 2014 has incorporated the various regulated entities within the scope of SNCF group. We shall therefore be pursuing our work, analysing the costs of rail activities, in particular those of SNCF Réseau, the infrastructure manager.
ARAFER
As the drafting of this report is being brought to a close, the French Act brought by Emmanuel Macron theFrenchministerforEconomicAffairs, is before the National Assembly on second reading; a vote should be taken by the end of the month of July 2015. The Act plans for our competences
to be extended to road affairs:
coach transportation and motorway concessions.
2015 is proving to be a strategic year for Araf, calling for a major re-engineering of our operational departments and
a build-up of our competences in the new areas we shall be regulating and monitoring.
Called into becoming the French Rail and Road Regulatory Body, the new Arafer should employ 85 persons by the beginning
of 2016: experts in railways, road passenger transport and motorway concessions; it will thus become a multimodal regulatory body.
ARAF AND
THE SINGLE EUROPEAN RAILWAY AREA
The « Recast » directive in force since 16 June 2015 and aiming at setting up a single European railway area (SERA), will standardise the running of European regulatory bodies and strengthen their independence.
In concrete terms, this translates into the enlargement of our mission to economically regulate the Channel Tunnel in cooperation with our British counterpart ORR, the Ofice of Rail and Road.
THEMATIC BROCHURE