Mayo discusses “Rail Regulation for Improved Performance” at the World Bank’s Transportation and ICT Forum

On March 8, 2016 Professor John Mayo spoke to the The World Bank’s Transportation and ICT Forum. His talk was part of an invited panel discussion on “Rail Regulation for Improved Performance.” The panel explored the linkages regulatory and deregulatory policies with market demand, industry structure, and economic performance. Professor Mayo described the U.S. experience with deregulation since the Staggers Rail Act of 1980, and observed that residual and potentially increasing regulation of the freight rail industry in the United States threatens to provoke a number of economic inefficiencies. John R. Thomas (Regulatory Affairs Advisor to Etihad Rail, previously a Director of Railway Markets and Economics in the United Kingdom’s Office of Railroad Regulation) presented the U.K.’s experience since the late-1990’s rail privatization and significant restructuring. Professor Dr. Ramiz Al-Assar (Sr. World Bank Resident Advisor for the Gulf Cooperation Council Railway Project presented the Gulf Cooperation Council Railway Project and discussed the ongoing process of setting up a regulatory authority. Following the presentations, the audience took advantage of an opportunity to apply the lessons learned from the U.S. and U.K. while discussing the challenges and factors involved in creating the GCC Rail Authority.