“Railway development has not been supported these past 30 years and the excessive underfinancing has led to a series of measures such as staff lay-offs and fewer lines. During my mandate, we want to reduce the segments with speed restrictions. We must increase speed and finish the ongoing projects on Corridor IV. I want to assure you that this transport mode will be prioritised and I hope that this will sustain the development of railways”, declared Romanian Transport Minister Lucian Sova during the Infrastructure Conference organised by Club Feroviar, with the support of the Romanian Railway Industry Association (AIF) on 14-15 March, in Alba Iulia.
“I am well aware of the problems that CFR Calatori and CFR Marfa are facing, as well as of the challenges that CFR SA has to overcome daily. We are also aware of the fact that traffic speeds have plummeted. It’s a shame that we’ve come to set as targets traffic speeds that used to be common in the 1990s. One of my objectives is to reduce speed restrictions on several railway segments”, added Minister Lucian Sova.
“Every year, CFR SA faces problems related to rail infrastructure repair and maintenance, while CFR Calatori deals with the reduction of the number of operational cars. Regarding CFR Marfa, I believe that there should be a loyal competition in the market, there must be a fair opening to competition. I believe that a state-owned company should be capable to maintain itself, I am not a supporter of state protectionism and I expect sustained efforts from CFR Marfa. We are living in an economy that has to progress. Also, I expect private operators to observe the rules of loyal competition”, pointed out Minister Lucian Sova in the presence of the general managers of CFR SA, CFR Calatori, CFR Marfa, as well as in the presence of the directors of regional subsidiaries from the three state-owned companies that are representative for the Romanian railway transport.
“These companies need investments and perhaps they didn’t benefit from enough state budget grants. During my mandate, which I hope would be as long as possible, I intend to prioritise the services that railways provide as alternative to road transport”, added the Minister of Transport.
He expressed his enthusiasm in the RO-LA programme and declared he hoped that CFR Marfa would succeed to attract enough budget funds to make this programme attractive.
In the end, Minister Sova declared that he expected the national passenger transport operator CFR Calatori to carry out more ambitious programmes for rolling stock modernisation, to improve travel conditions, to reduce energy consumption and to adapt to market conditions. “I am not happy to find out that cutting the number of trains is believed to be one of the alternatives. These trains have to be as many as possible, more accessible to public and to provide improved travelling conditions”, Transport Minister Lucian Sova concluded.
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