The railway political speech of the past years has been dominated by the idea of liberalisation and institutional separation between infrastructure managers and railway operators. The European Commission and part of the market wanted the Fourth Railway Package to be a step forward towards a European system where public authorities provide investors with a lever for developing business, competing and, finally, contributing to increasing the life quality of the European citizens with a lower financial effort from public money.
However, it seems that the railway logic of shut-down undertakings that tolerate the activities of complementary undertakings only in those areas where it is impossible for them to act directly is about to win. The European Parliament has approved the constituent text of the legislative package with a series of amendments that come to truncate the original message and spirit proposed by the European Commission. Preserving the current life style, marked by the logic of the state clerk or of a colossus that leads large masses of people through order, prevails in front of the possibility of working on equal terms with suppliers or customers, against the possibility of assessing performance according to strictly business criteria and, finally, against the possibility of losing the privilege of “strategic undertaking”.
What is surprising in the logic of approaching the different industries and strategies for optimising activity is the fact that for air or naval transport the separation between infrastructure managers and operators is accepted as normal and natural, although we talk about environments with technical challenges similar to railway transport. As underlined before, we can observe a major approach difference between the employees of a self-oriented business environment, such as the railway environment, and those of an environment open to international cooperation and competition, such as air or naval transportation.
The events of the near future, also influenced by electoral logic, are vital to understanding what will be the path of the next decades. Probably, the conservatory path will be favoured, forcing us to continue at the mercy and will of enlightened people who want or not to invest in railways and in the industry too, instead of leaving the private flows to converge on this area, which is either leverage or economic brake.
by Ştefan Roşeanu
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