Abstract
Owing to the rise of environmental concerns and the regionalization of the railway, regional “governments” are gradually more involved in transport policy-making. This paper is based on the results of a comparative and interdisciplinary research aiming at analyzing how the Regions are acting when confronted with these issues. It results clearly that the Regions seriously pay attention to the “collective transport of persons of regional interest” and that they found their political and territorial legitimacy on this competency. That legitimization is mainly shaped through three categories of conflicts : financing of transport investments, financing and definition of railway services, contribution to the local political system.