Methodology

Although since a few years the market powers are pointing into a direction of change, few literature is available on the effects of railway liberalization on passenger train operating companies’ strategies. Therefore, this thesis aimed at building strategic theory for the passenger railway sector applying a multi case study analysis approach (Eisenhardt, 1989, p. 535; Eisenhardt, 1991, p. 626). The thesis emblazed the following questions:

• Research question 1: How are Europe’s long-distance passenger rail markets with regard towards openness developing and which countries have by 2012 liberalized the furthest?
• Research question 2: Which competitive business strategies are present in today’s markets?
• Research question 3: Which generic strategies will lead to a competitive advantage in a liberalizing Western European long-distance passenger transportation market?

The regional focus of the paper was the Western and Central European market. Therefore, it coped with the countries of Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Switzerland. Content-wise the thesis bases evidence by referring to strategic theory, economic research findings of the railway sector, empirical insights from interviews with business insiders of train operating companies and official company documents. Because the selected topic was by the date of creation only vaguely addressable through data analysis, mainly qualitative findings are provided.