European rail logistics are highly complex. A geographically, politically and
economically fragmented Europe prevented the realization of a greater Europeanwide
integrated intermodal rail network (Charler and Ridolfi 1994). Since the mid-
1990s, the European intermodal sector has undergone major changes as a result of
European rail liberalization and with it the entry of new market players (see e.g.
Gouvernal and Daydou 2005; Debrie and Gouvernal 2006). The emergence of a
new generation of rail operators not only made incumbent firms act more commercially,
but also led to improvement in the endogenous capabilities of the
railway sector. This in time could make rail a more widespread alternative in
serving the European hinterlands, at least if some outstanding technical and
operational issues (e.g. standardization of rail traffic management systems under
the ERTMS scheme—European Rail Traffic Management System) facing crossborder
services can be solved.