Gunnar Alexandersson

Background

About Gunnar Alexandersson

For more than 25 years I have been involved in professional work or research related to the transport sector in Sweden and abroad. My PhD studies at Stockholm School of Economics covered a broad range of topics related to regulatory reforms, focusing on the development of the Swedish bus and railway sectors from 1979 and onwards. This research included studies on the origin and development of reforms and their effects upon firm, industry and society, with the impact of the introduction of competitive tendering being a special area of interest. I have also been involved in international research and consultancy projects as well as the organisation of several seminars and conferences devoted to railways and public transport. For a period in 2007-2008, I worked as Senior Economics Policy Adviser at the Community of European Railways and Infrastructure Companies (CER) in Brussels. This involved being responsible for a number of European transport policy dossiers related to economics, infrastructure and environmental issues. I also chaired several working groups with various stakeholder representatives in Brussels. In late 2008, I joined the Association of Swedish Train Operating Companies (ASTOC), an organisation for both freight and passenger train operators in Sweden. There I worked as Senior Policy Adviser, and more recently as deputy CEO. In these positions I became deeply involved in more or less all the issues covered by ASTOC, with some emphasis on regulations, market opening and European affairs. Since the finalisation of my PhD thesis I have held a part-time position as researcher at Stockholm School of Economics Institute for Research, with connections to researchers at other institutions in Sweden and abroad. In May 2013 I was appointed by the Swedish Government to lead a committee looking into the organisation of the Swedish railway sector. Following the delivery of two intermediary reports and one final report, this work was concluded in December 2015. In September 2015 I became a member of the Steering Committee for the International Conference Series on Competition and Ownership in Land Passenger Transport (the Thredbo series). I chaired the local Swedish committee that organised the 15th conference in Stockholm in August 2017. In September 2016 I became a part-time employee at the Swedish train operating company SJ AB, holding a position as senior advisor on regulations and international affairs. In November 2018 I was appointed chairman of the subgroup on passenger services of the European Commission’s Railway Undertakings Dialogue.