The transport volume potential in the Eurasian Platform is very high. Mr. Libor Lochman, Executive Director of the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER), attended the Railway Days Summit – Greener and more efficient railways in WBSA – organized by Club Feroviar and the Romanian Railway Industry Association (AIF) on 8-9 October, in Bucharest, where he talked about building a viable railway platform in the Wider Black Sea Area (WBSA) and providing the legal framework for a seamless transport in the Far East and Central and Eastern Europe.
CER Executive Director Libor Lochman talked about the rail freight market development in South East Europe outlining that according to rough estimates, “the potential for the annual freight transport between Asia and Europe is about USD 75 Billion. Most of that is currently being transported by sea shipping. How can we attract this amount of freight towards the railways? Let’s take at least a part of this amount and move it to the rail. The Black Sea Region should play an important role in this transportation because that is the region that really connects Europe with the rest of Asia”, said Lochman.
“Unfortunately, the reality on the market share of our days is not as good as we have wished to. There has been quite a strong decline in the railway freight transport share between 1970 and 2011, especially after ’95 due to political changes. Romania has also experienced a downfall in the freight transport market share, although according to the statistics in the past decade, Romania’s transport potential is quite high, but still under the transport share of Turkey. Firm and rather urgent measures are needed to remedy the situation. However, there is also good news as the market share of railway freight transport has increased in the past 18 months, although slightly”, pointed out Libor Lochman.
CER Executive Director presented useful statistics on intermodal competition, which looks like its recuperating some of the lost ground. Thus, in 2006 the market share of new entrants amounted to 14%, in 2008 to 19% and in 2010 to 25%. Therefore, structural changes alone are not enough to revive railway transport, it is necessary to create other framework conditions.
Referring to the structural changes included in the legislative framework initiated in Europe in the last decade, CER Executive Director said that member states should improve the legislative activity to ensure a fair legislative framework for intermodal transport. Moreover, Lochman said that transport operators were not the only ones to blame for the poor efficiency of the railway sector in Wider Black Sea Area.
“If national governments don’t decide to invest in railway transport, to ensure the right amount of infrastructure investments and last but not least to give a chance to this transport mode, the railways could not be seen as a viable alternative to road transport”, pointed out Lochman.
Thus, it would be best to set trans-modal legislative principles based on the joint principle of infrastructure charging, the joint principle for the internalization of negative external costs, the joint charging principle, the joint principle of passenger rights and the joint principle of social standards.
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