FULL STEAM AHEAD OR DOWN? AN EVALUATION OF EUROPEAN RAILWAYS AFTER THE “YEAR OF RAIL”

OpenAlex Türkçe

The year 2021 was a critical juncture for European Railways. Not just the deadline for full implementation of the Fourth Railway Package, but the EU also advertised the whole year as "the year of Rail" to accelerate mobility on rail and aid member states to speed up their compliance with the norms of highly anticipated “Single European Railways”. Nevertheless, both goals seemed pretty ambitious to achieve when member states were still coping with the pernicious effects of the pandemic and the war. This research evaluates EU nations’ current performance towards the EU’s railway regulations. Through a machine-learning model, the analysis suggests three classes of states. It assumes a significant differentiation in member state performance, which causes the EU to fall behind the assumed schedule immensely.