The economic downturn has definitely had an impact on the railway sector. This impact was difficult especially in Central and Eastern Europe, with losses of over a third the volume of carried goods. Under the circumstances, railway transport, as well as the other modes of transport, road, maritime and air have been affected. CEE railway transport has been negatively affected and continues to be affected because of the financial instability and mostly because national governments usually prefer to invest in road transport. The situation got worse with the outburst of the economic crisis.
Opening national rail transport markets is an important step in increasing the competitiveness and quality of transport and to boost the transport demand. All these contribute to transport development and implicitly stimulate the shift from road to rail. Rail freight transport evolution in the past years shows that liberalisation alone could fail in terms of competition and development. The analysis conducted by the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) has reached the conclusion that the following conditions influence, directly or indirectly, the transport efficiency and need to be considered: infrastructure financing, fair competition between transport modes, the debt relief for companies and compensation according to public service obligations. Opening markets is a key condition for improved railway services and success depends on the implementation of complementary conditions. The analysis of the EC date shows that opening markets is a mandatory yet insufficient measure for the harmonised development of rail freight transport in Europe. This applies mostly to the CEE countries where market liberalisation doesn’t coincide with the growth of rail transport share.
“The Commission’s analysis shows that Central and Eastern Europe countries invest in the railway sector 10 times less than western countries. While the rail transport share in EU 27 is higher than EU 15, the share drops rapidly due to insufficient funding”, declared for Railway Pro Johannes Ludewig, Executive Director CER.
While the outcome of the analysis doesn’t show that there are pre-established conditions for liberalisation, it clearly shows that all conditions should be entirely met in order to increase the rail transport market share. “It is possible that the liberalisation will have positive effects in the railway transport in those countries where these conditions are being met”, Ludewig added.
However, during crisis periods, there are important reforms that should stimulate the recovery of the railway sector on medium and long term. Progresses have been attained especially in what concerns freight transport liberalisation and recently passenger transport market. “The competition level in the railway sector increased once new operators accessed the freight and passenger market. New passenger operators are mainly the result of the introduction of competitive tenders, while new freight operators come in response to the companies which began operation having free access to services. Market opening reforms are backed by EU initiatives which aim to join national networks into one integrated European network”, declared for Railway Pro Torben Holvad, Economic Advisor, the European Railway Agency (ERA).
This could also be implemented by implementing technical harmonisation while improving rail interoperability. This harmonisation develops together with the implementation of technical standards on the railway network. In the next 10 to 20 years, the permanent effects of the reorganisation and revitalisation of the rail sector should continue to contribute to an efficient and customer-oriented sector. Improving the network through TEN-T projects will also play a decisive role in encouraging modal shift and generating new demands.
DB Schenker Rail Bulgaria EOOD began activity in May 2010 at Pirdop, Bulgaria. By operation extension, DB Schenker Rail has managed to establish a national company in Southern Europe. “Now that the operation license was issued, we can continue to expand our transport services in South-Eastern Europe and to provide customer-oriented transport solutions”, declared Hans-Georg Werner, DB Schenker Rail Board member responsible for the Eastern Region. The company has been providing transport services since June 2010.
by Pamela Luică
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