More than twenty years ago the EU Directive 91/440/ECC marked the beginning of the liberalisation of the European rail market. Due to the economic particularities of this market, the resulting degree of competition could not have developed in the first place without forcing the former state owned railway companies to provide their own rail infrastructure to other companies, under fair and regulated conditions. As a consequence the so called “right of access” to third party infrastructure became an essential element of market liberalisation, which has been significantly developed and enhanced over the years. The aim of this paper is to examine the Austrian implementation of this right from various juridical viewpoints. The first chapter introduces the subject and illustrates the historical, economic and legal backgrounds of rail liberalisation. The second chapter is dedicated to the relevant primary and secondary European Union law and the representation of the gradual evolution of the latter aims to facilitate the understanding of national law. The third and final chapter is the fundamental part of this paper and analyses, in detail, the Austrian legislation for the right of access, including the legal requirements to exercise this right. In order to achieve a better understanding of the topic, this chapter also contains various practical examples and deals with the possible infringement of fundamental rights. |