Hungary is buying EMUs to improve regional passenger transport. Rolling stock development projects are called for as railway passenger transport in the country is becoming increasingly attractive, at the same time infrastructure development projects consolidate the importance that railway transport has on the economy of a country. Csaba Ungvári, CEO of MÁV-START Co., talks about these projects in an interview for Railway Pro presenting the opinion of the Hungarian operator about the liberalisation of the domestic passenger transport.
Railway PRO: What news can you tell us about the tender organized by MÁV-START and Austro-Hungarian regional operator GySEV on the acquisition of 48 trains? Will the company sign the contract with Stadler?
Csaba Ungvári: MÁV-START Co. and GySEV Co. jointly initiated an open public procurement procedure for multiple units in November last year. Within the frame of this procedure MÁV-START wishes to procure 42, whilst GYSEV 6 partly low floored, single system, electric multiple units for regional use, each of which is accessible for people with reduced mobility, has a seating capacity of 200 seats and a speed of 160 km per hour. The final deadline for the delivery of the multiple units is 30 September 2015. In total out of the eight economic operators that bought the tender documentation one company, namely Stadler Bussnang AG, made an offer until the end of the tender period. The offer was found valid and successful. After advising the tenderer about the result of the procedure (26 February), MÁV-START Co. and GYSEV Co. have to conclude a contract with the winner within 30 days – in accordance with the respective legislation. The Hungarian Government issued a decree in February to approve the state support for the procurement of the electric multiple units – declared a priority project – which is in line with the New Széchenyi Plan (Új Széchenyi Terv) as part of the Transport Operational Programme. The conclusion of the grant agreement with regard to providing TOP funds is in progress.
Railway PRO: Can you provide us with details about the evolution of the railway passenger transport market in 2011 and 2012? How would you comment on the evolution of the number of passengers?
Csaba Ungvári: Rail transport – both for domestic and international destinations – is becoming more and more popular nowadays. This is underlined by the fact that the number of passengers opting for rail transport further increased last year, which means we carried more than 142 million passengers on our trains in 2012. This equals to seven and a half billion kilometres in rail, which could mean an impressive 200 000 rounds travelling around the Earth along the Equator. The reasons behind the positive change in the number of passengers are complex: the increase in fuel prices surely cannot be ignored, while the basic tariffs for travel by rail have remained unchanged since 2010. In addition, periodical timetable of high frequency – better serving passengers’ needs –, improved connection options, shorter travel times, our extended railway vehicle development activity also attract passengers. As public transport qua-lity is a key influencing factor in passengers’ perception of our performance, we strive to increase the level of our services through: free wifi aboard the trains; e-tickets that can be presented printed or electronically when travelling; extending bike carrier services, continuously improving punctuality and offering more than a thousand suburban P+R parking service lots.
Railway PRO: What is the role of railway transport in Hungary, as related to the national and regional economic development objectives and compared to the other transport modes?
Csaba Ungvári: In all of the economic policy strategies, as well as in the National Transport Strategy the development of railway transport development has an empha-tic role, partly because of the larger transport capacity, but also owing to its less harmful impact on the environment. All this can be observed in practice through the infrastructure development of the main long-distance and suburban lines, where several large-scale projects are carried out currently, for instance on the Budapest-Székesfehérvár and Szolnok-Debrecen railway lines. As opposed to the road development priorities in previous years, the railway sector has recently been given more attention: lines previously closed down have been re-opened, speed restrictions have been cancelled and travel time has been significantly reduced. The Government has reviewed the operational duplications and has rationalized the state grant shared by the rail and road sectors.
Railway PRO: Can you detail for us the projects that MÁV-START has carried out or those to be carried out as regards the intensification of traffic on international railway routes, especially on those in the countries neighbouring Hungary?
Csaba Ungvári: In international traffic we have managed to realize a number of deve-lopments as regards time-tabling and tariffs in the past five years. Both on the Vienna-Munich and the Bratislava-Prague axes a two-hour periodical time-table has been introduced. At the same time we could create a system which provides direct connection to several destinations in Romania. Furthermore, the international traffic system in Central Europe has been restructured, and a direct day connection to Zurich has been introduced. In the modernization of the available rolling stock the ÖBB-Railjet train sets played an important role, thanks to which IC-quality vehicles could be reallocated to Serbian and Romanian relations thus creating a uniform standard in the entire international long-distance traffic. On existing and new relations MÁV-START has introduced affordable discount tickets and reduced return ticket fares. 2015 onwards, significant time savings will be realized on the Budapest-Vienna-Munich relation, parallel to this the Czech railways is launching Railjets on the Budapest-Prague relations. This way, on our two most important routes uniform and modern service can be provided for passengers wishing to use day trains. Last but not least I wish to highlight the cooperation agreement concluded in August 2012, which hopefully is only the first step in the cooperation between our countries aiming at reaching a long-term competitiveness in the international passenger railway services.
Railway PRO: How does MÁV-START, as state operator, look on the application of rail passenger transport provisions included in the Fourth Railway Package, especially those concerning the mandatory tendering of Public Service Obligations?
Csaba Ungvári: Our company welcomes all the legislations and initiatives that aim to increase the number of passengers in rail traffic or intend to improve travel conditions, since this is in the interest of all active companies in the rail passenger market. As for the implementation and creating the legislative framework, various actors in the Member States may have different interests and preferences. I feel it is a bit early to comment on the specific effects of the Fourth Railway Package, because at the moment we are dealing with a draft, the parliamentary debate of which has not even begun. With my colleagues we regularly review the accessible drafts, and we are also actively involved in the work of the international railway organizations, where we can state our position. All in all, I can say that we are in preparation for the implementation of the regulations.
Railway PRO: What is MÁV-START’s opinion about the liberalisation of domestic passenger transport?
Csaba Ungvári: As I have pointed out, the debate of the law about the full libe-ralization of the railway passenger transport market and its detailed rules has not even started in the European Parliament, and for this reason its final norm text is not yet known. We are in support of any measures improving the quality and along with this the competitiveness of rail passenger services, but we expect that the provisions regulating the new market conditions should ensure the principles of competition. The primary objective of our developments is serving our passengers at the highest possible level, nevertheless, we also continue to improve our market position through developments. The recent growth in the number of passengers and the improvement of satisfaction indices with regard to our services entitles us to assume we are on the right track in the process of preparation for the competition.
Railway PRO: What are the company’s plans for improving the informatisation of rail passenger transport, passenger information systems and e-ticketing systems?
Csaba Ungvári: MÁV-START’s ticketing system is in the process of renewal regarding both domestic and international sales. Our goal is to increase the proportion of electronic channels, in other words to motivate ticket purchase through the internet, and also to cut down on ticket office sales by means of installing ticket machines. Through internet purchase, tickets can be printed at home or can be presented on a smart phone (using the bar code) on occasion of an on-board inspection. We are currently developing a system for issuing railway passes in form of a chip card. From the new system up-to-date information can be obtained, which will facilitate our decision-making as regards e.g. the introduction of new products or special offers. On the suburban trains of Budapest we plan to introduce the so-called relation-numbers this year (already wide-spread in urban public transport). As a result we expect to increase our role in the transport system of the capital. As for the station development programme, with view to improving station service quality, new visual displays are installed on lines 100a and 30a. Concerning the on-board passenger information service, the developments started last year are conti-
nued: BVmot, BDVmot, BVhmot electric motor units are provided with VULTRON on-board passenger information displays. This ensures the broadest possible on-board voice information service on suburban lines.
Railway PRO: What are the methods that MÁV-START’s board plans to use to increase the use of railway transport among people?
Csaba Ungvári: Improving competitiveness, fulfilling passenger needs, increasing service levels, time-table and vehicle development, implementation and maintenance of a competitive pricing and sales system, efficient and targeted marketing communications, long-term corporate strategy, improving efficiency, and customer focus. The yearly marketing and market research plan calls for targeting potential revenue generating segments on a one-by-one basis. Messages will be delivered through three main channels. The first being a blend of MÁV-START’s own resources such as its website (www.mav-start.hu), its forthcoming community site, its newsletter database, and InterCity magazine. The second channel consists of optimized purchases of media space through agencies (emphasis on Online). The third channel entails partnerships such as the one existing with Hungary Tourism, Hungary’s national tourism agency.
Railway PRO: What are MÁV-START’s near-future priorities and how much are estimated investments worth considering the fact that we are getting close to the next programming period 2014-2020?
Csaba Ungvári: Despite improvements in recent years, the average age of MÁV-START’s vehicle fleet still exceeds 30 years. Taking into account our financial limitations, our medium-term plans of cca. 20 billion forints per year include the production of state-of-the-art IC+ cars of 200 km/h suitable for international traffic, and the renovation of international and IC capable CAF cars. Given the availability of EU funds, however, we intend to continue our multiple unit train project. Furthermore, and parallel to the development of rail track infrastructure, additional purchases of modern locomotives will be required in the period between 2014 and 2020 in order to fully reap the benefits provided by the upgraded track infrastructure both in terms of train scheduling and quality of service – thus exploiting the potential of rail transport competitiveness.
[ by Elena Ilie ]
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