The White Paper on Transport stipulates a safe and efficient transport service, the European Union’s main objective being the liberalisation of railway passenger transport which came last in the Third Railway Package.
The liberalisation of passenger and freight transport markets increases competitiveness and encourages the development of the railway business segment. Under the circumstances, rolling stock manufacturers must launch innovative products, while transport operators must provide quality services and seek viable financing solutions. However, efficient and quality transport services require the allocation of funds for infrastructure modernisation and expansion. All these aspects were discussed during the Club Feroviar Conference entitled “Building profitable railway freight and passenger transport systems in the Wider Black Sea area”, organised by Club Feroviar and the Romanian Railway Industry Association (AIF) during March 25-26, 2010 in Poiana Braşov, Romania. “EU is not satisfied with the liberalisation of international transport alone but also seeks the liberalisation of domestic transport. Prior to its application, Directive 58/2007/EC must be transposed into the national legislation and in order to be put into practice, there must be infrastructure access and the interoperability and safety norms must be applied. Moreover, the establishment of a regulatory body, independent of the operators, infrastructure managers and authorities, is essential in the liberalisation process” declared Carmen Filipescu, Head of International Affairs within CFR Călători, during the conference. The elaboration of the multiannual public service contract and of the also multiannual budget, as well as the appropriate compensation for public service contracts is an essential condition in the railway passenger transport liberalisation. “We cannot be against liberalisation. This is what generates competition, which means supplying quality services and the shift to a more eco-friendly transport. We must fight for infrastructure, even if there are no funds. In vain the operators invest in rolling stock and other projects. The allocation of infrastructure funds determines the increase of the traffic speed but also contributes to a lower infrastructure access charge. If we don’t support the infrastructure, we will face major problems”, Carmen Filipescu added. The appropriate implementation of the liberalisation process requires a series of conditions such as fair competition, political will, establishment of regulatory body, internationalisation of external costs based on the “polluter pays principle” and, of course, infrastructure financing which contributes not only to higher traffic speeds but also to lower access charges. “The Romanian Railway Authority tries to apply the appropriate regulations to answer the needs in Romania in the best and most efficient way possible. Through the authority’s actions, we are trying to be one of the main elements in developing the independence and liberalisation of railway transport”, declared Cristinel Florea, ASFR manager. Since the liberalisation process requires the establishment of an independent regulatory body, Romania “will soon have this body. The necessary legislation was elaborated by the Railway Supervisory Committee, but the European Union didn’t approve the legislation, because State-owned operators may be favoured, seeing as the regulatory body will operate under the authorization of the Ministry of Transport. The idea of separating the regulatory body from the ministry was well-received, thus it will remain independent from State-owned and private operators and from the Ministry of Transport. This idea was well-received by Emil Boc, Romanian Prime Minister, as well. The next step would be for the General Secretariat of the Government (SGG) to approve the paperwork”, declared for Railway Pro Gheorghe Popa, Secretary of State within the Romanian Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure. He also said that “in 2010, aside from CFR Călători, we will have five more private operators, two more than last year”.
RO-LA transport (rolling road) was another discussion topic among conference participants. “There are no RO-LA trains. The regulation for this type of transport will be approved by the Competition Committee, but we cannot operate RO-LA transport. This type of transport is very much insisted on, but it will not work in our country. It represents a traffic alternative with a 45% state financing. It might work in international transport, but not in Romania. It was just an experiment, that’s all. A partnership between state-owned and private companies would be beneficial for the entire railway transport sector. This way we could also attract European funding”, declared Ion Garoseanu, general manager Ferest Logistics. To make this segment functional, the authority in charge has elaborated documents to be reviewed by the government. “We presented a document in favour of RO-LA transport to the government and now we are waiting for their official response. RO-LA transport will not work without financing, but if these funds are granted, I’m sure private operators will be interested”, Gheorghe Popa declared.
Railway infrastructure faces the same underfinancing
In regards to the current situation of the Romanian Railways, MTI representative said that “the situation of the Romanian railway sector is very difficult, seeing as nothing major will happen in 2010. As far as I am concerned, the ministry is not the problem here. The state allocates only 1% of the national GDP, compared to 3% in other European countries. We should lobby more in order to persuade the Ministry of Public Finance to allocate more funds for the railway sector”. “In order to have a real lobby for the railway sector, we need resources; we need a budget for an efficient lobby and we also have to take serious actions in order to attract the attention of the authorities”, said Gabriel Stanciu, General Manager Alstom Transport Romania, during the same conference. However, “we are waiting for the elaboration of a combined transport strategy, which has been awaited by private freight operators for six years. We are also expecting an agreement with operators in what concerns the absorption of European funds”, declared George Buruiană, General Manager Servtrans Invest. In Romania, the market share of railway freight operators is 50% and further growth is envisaged. With this percentage, “we rank third in Europe as number of companies but not as freight volume shipped on rails. The current infrastructure situation and lack of investments are sources of major problems”, Gheorghe Popa declared.
Regulation 1370/2007 stipulates the fair compensation of public service contract
“European Union’s clear objective related to the public transport service is ensuring a more efficient passenger transport, with an increasing safety and quality level, by means of competition regulated with the help of a legislative framework, Directives or Regulations, that the state could implement”, declared Carmen Filipescu, during the conference, referring to the importance of an appropriate implementation and understanding of Regulation 1370/2007 by every Member State. Regulation 1370 came into force on December 4, 2009, it applies to all EU Member States and includes the rights and obligations of railway transport passengers. “The objectives stipulated in the Regulation must be achieved by protecting public service contracts because there is a wide range of public services which must be ensured, many of the land transport services cannot operate commercially because they have a social character and they carry out a social obligation”, Carmen Filipescu pointed out.
The responsible state authority must ensure several basic mechanisms so that a public service contract can become functional, more precisely, it should grant exclusive rights to the transport operator, appropriately compensate the operator, which means ensuring the difference between the imposed costs and revenues. Last but not least, the state authority must ensure the definition of general norms on the exploitation of public transport, Carmen Filipescu believes. “One of the novelties included in Regulation 1370/2007 is the fact that the attribution of the public service contract is made by railway transport operators, regardless of the fact that they are state-owned or private. The attribution of the public service contracts should be as transparent as possible, held by tender, and the compensation granted by the entitled authority to the transport operator should be sufficient, neither under-compensated nor over-compensated because it would contradict the European norms on the allocation of state aids”, Carmen Filipescu added. Regulation 1370/2007 is the most important provision of the Third Railway Package and aims at ensuring the protection of rail passengers’ rights and obligations and improving the quality of rail passenger transport services.
State-owned operators change maintenance strategy while private operators announce service expansion
The panel session for Railway Operators and Rolling Stock organised at Poiana Braşov focused on the main problems of Romanian operators which face maintenance difficulties. In 2010, CFR Marfă contracted 0 wagons for periodical repairs, said Vizante Tomoni, President of the Employers’ Organisation for Rolling Stock Overhaul (OPREMAR). The panel session focused on the impact of the lack of funds on the railway industry. The conclusion was that both suppliers and operators face bankruptcy. Adrian Taban, Operation Manager at CFR Marfă, recognized the fact that the national freight operator has difficulty in keeping pace with the repair works made in past years. CFR Marfă carries out the periodical and major repair works within the company’s IRV, at a pace of only 20 wagons/month, compared with 70-100 wagons/month in past years. In regards to the maintenance of Desiro DMUs, around 55 of the 120 DMUs acquired by CFR Călători from Siemens have been put out of service because of the lack of funds for the acquisition of spare parts, mostly new axles. On this occasion, Gheorghe Popa, Secretary of State within the Romanian Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure (MTI), said that a tender will be organised for the acquisition of the necessary Desiro axles. This way, they will be able to solve an unforeseen problem with the elaboration of the task book at the moment of the acquisition. Gheorghe Popa added that he foresees the participation of a reduced number of Romanian
suppliers of assembled axles, seeing as very few Romanian manufacturers are certified in Desiro DMU axles. TFG announced the resumption of the railway activity in Băile Felix area through the launch of services on Oradea-Băile Felix line after 10 years since trains operated on this section. The operator based in Cluj will contract multiple-units capable to accommodate 250 people on seats for developing the transport capacity which, currently, stands at 100 passengers/train. Also, according to the company’s general manager, Kinga Mădăraşan, TFG will also operate a passenger train between Cluj-Napoca and Băile Felix. Regiotrans announced the launch of new passenger services on central and north-eastern lines. Thus, starting March 1, 2010, passengers can travel on new routes, such as Roman-Iaşi, Târgu Neamţ-Iaşi, Fălticeni-Paşcani and Braşov-Arad, all return services.
Space for bikes and luggage – new trend on the rolling stock market
The tendencies observed among the manufacturers present at Poiana Braşov conference and among the latest generation rolling stock introduced to the Romanian public were the attention given to luggage and bicycle space to attract as many passengers as possible and to get aligned to the latest trends of modern public transport, the ergonomization of interior spaces for providing a quality experience during transport, the seats and transit corridors being widened or the modularisation of body components to enable a fast replacement in case of accidents which can cause damage to train bodies and to make sure the vehicle re-enters operation as soon as possible.
CORADIA POLYVALENT is the latest concept developed by Alstom Transport and incorporates the latest technologies of environmentally friendly and performing transport currently on the market. According to Gabriel Stanciu, General Manager Alstom Romania, the POLYVALENT model of CORADIA class has increased performances in motorization and energy consumption, the permanent magnet engines providing a 3% higher efficiency for electric vehicles than previous models and a 20% superior braking and energy recovery capacity. For electric vehicles, noxious emissions have been limited to 2g/km/passenger, while the diesel engine will generate 25g/km/passenger. Bombardier has introduced the OMNEO double-decker which will soon replace the double-deckers manufactured by the multinational group. Mircea Marian, Country Manager Bombardier Transportation Romania, said the vehicle is part of the ECO4 range of products. A special attention was given to interior design and easy access for people with mobility disabilities. The rooms are intensely illuminated both naturally and artificially due to the large windows which take up over 50% of the train’s surface and to the intelligent lighting system which has also an informative function, passengers being informed that a station approaches by the changing of hues or light colours.
by Pamela Luică, Elena Ilie, Alin Lupulescu
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