Brussels urged to act over SNCF

The once-cosy world of European state-owned railways was given a jolt on Thursday as Italy revealed it had teamed up with Germany's Deutsche Bahn to press the European Commission to act against what they saw as unfair competition and fully liberalise national passenger markets.

Mauro Moretti, chief executive of Italy's state-owned Ferrovie dello Stato, made it clear that the Italian-German initiative was aimed primarily at France's SNCF, which he accused of unfair competition and obstruction. "This is our first action [against SNCF]," he told the Financial Times. "If there is not a positive answer we can consider other steps."

Their action follows raids by the French competition authorities last month against SNCF.

It said it would co-operate fully with the inquiries about the openness of the rail freight market, saying it was "playing the game fairly".

SNCF also rejected D Bahn's and Ferrovie's accusations, pointing out that since its rail freight market started deregulating in 2005, private competitors had taken 8 per cent of the market - a point it said took 10 years to be reached in Germany.