Contact Person : Irina Lapenkova ; Last Date for the submission of abstract : 16/11/2018; Across the world, railways are poised to face new challenges, as all transport modes are transformed by technological innovations, liberalization, competition with other modes of transport and most recently by digitalization. Consequently, the railway industry is required to increase efficiency while ensuring security and safety, as it has to address multimodality, such as buses, as well as compete with new transport modes such as car-sharing. Regulation of the railway industry and its various dimensions, not the least competition, is the central factor in the process of its transformation and will ultimately decide whether railways will or will not increase their modal share.