…shippers, forwarders, railroaders and politicians work together in building a superbly performing and cost effective railway system which delivers for today’s needs of transport.
When it comes to rail freight, one major goal has been to substantially increase the volume of goods moved by rail and thus deliver environmental and economic benefits for Europe. Everybody seems to agree, but when the Sunday speeches are over, a careful analysis of the status-quo paints a much bleaker picture. Volumes stagnate at best and many railroaders and their owners lack the capital, strategy or will to dramatically innovate and modernise. At the dawning of the digital age, the transport of goods by rail has to become much easier to handle for shippers and their supply-chain partners. Whilst recognizing the need to improve performance and to reduce costs of rail transport, a careful analysis of Europe’s rail freight transport system shows that it is still a major task to implement a powerful and unified system, once envisaged as the Single European Railfreight Arena (SERA).
Two pillars are necessary to ensure the future of rail freight in Europe: a dramatic and innovative redesign of operating procedures, rolling stock and customer focus as well as benevolent regulators and public owners of infrastructure and major rail-roads. The industry needs to modernise its business model and open up to digitization. Digital services provide valuable information and the potential to make rail as a mode of transportation easier to access and more efficient. New customer interfaces via intelligent railcars and locos offer the chance of a more integrated supply-chain, and – looking into the future – autonomous driving promises to increase efficiency. With measures like that we can make a huge contribution to improving attractiveness of rail freight as a mode of transport. And I believe we are ready to play our part in this process.
However, making rail a more attractive mode of transport does not depend on us alone. Fundamental regulatory changes are necessary to boost the rail freight in Europe. We urgently need a fully harmonized and less restrictive regulatory frame-work to reduce administrative and technical barriers as well as red tape. Reduced track access charges would strengthen rail freight in the competition with road transport, and financial aids could boost the development of innovations in the rolling stock industry. Besides, massive infrastructure investments are necessary to ensure the network is equipped for the competition with road transport. New freight-only corridors and the mitigation of current bottlenecks for example are urgently required. We fully recognize our own responsibility as industry players in this respect. However, it needs carefully designed and substantial help from the European governments to level today’s imbalance between the different modes of transport.
If all relevant actors – us representing the industry as well as the political officials in charge – live up to their responsibility and work together, I am convinced that we can write the next chapter in rail’s success story, ease the burden of road transport on society and the environment and play a major part in curbing CO2 emissions.
Contribution by:
Heiko Fischer
President
International Union of Wagon Keepers (UIP)
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