Regulation of the Unified Scheduling Authority in the Reform of Chinese Railways: Consideration Under the Background of Functions Separation in Chinese Railways Market

Abstract

The foundations of the marketization reform in railways market are the diversification of market entities and the normalization of market order. The reform in 2013, where government function was separated from the business function, eliminated the obstacles derived from mixed organizational functions for the normalization of market order. However, even though the business function has been transferred to China Railway Corporation, Government should take on the responsibility of regulating the unified scheduling authority which shows both public and private business features governed by CRC for the sake of public interest. The Unified scheduling power, on which railway corporations’ lives depend, should be regulated by rules from both market and government and supervised by the public, in order to avoid the abuse of power, to reduce the possibility of corruption and to lay the foundation for a better development of China’s railway market.
Key words: Separation of functions; Unified scheduling; Capacity allocation; Track usage