Romanian railway specialists and representatives of the railway industry analysed the Memorandum “Measures to improve the efficiency of the Romanian railway sector necessary to approve the General Transport Master Plan of Romania”. The memorandum was adopted at the beginning of June by the Romanian Government.
The analysed document relies exclusively on the information and proposals supplied by AECOM in the consultancy contract on the elaboration of the General Transport Master Plan of Romania (MPGT). The document recommends, among others, the concentration on a more limited railway network, specifically by reducing the national network by 4,000 km. However, the railway specialists stressed that the intention of reducing the national railway network by 4,000 km is not financially viable or efficient.
The General Transport Master Plan is compiled to offer a clear transport development strategy in Romania over the next 20 years. To be turned into account, is should provide applicable solutions to the problems and requirements of the transport sector in Romania. The Master Plan will identify the projects and policies that would best meet Romania’s transport needs over the next 5-15 years for all transport modes, supplying a solid analytical database to attract such policies and projects”, the consultants states in the recitals of the project.
Briefly, shows the recitals elaborated by the consultant, the Master Plan will identify the projects and policies that will best satisfy the needs of the transport sector in Romania over the next 5-15 years, for all transport modes, providing a solid, analytical base in selecting those policies and projects.
Struggling to define problems, the consultant used a reference scenario with data updated in 2011. This limitation, although data on traffic and transport business environment evolution are now available for 2012-2013, can create confusion and the inappropriate evaluation of investment projects.
Moreover, the Report on the existing railway transport conditions, elaborated by AECOM consultant, includes data from 2011 only from CFR Călători and CFR Marfă, but not from CFR SA, as it would have been appropriate in the elaboration of a draft Master Plan with direct implication on the activity of all the three companies.
A series of representatives of the Romanian railway sector, transport operators, infrastructure managers, specialized university teachers, representatives of the railway industry and other interested parties participated debated on the above-mentioned Memorandum.
The specialists reunited for the debates organised by Club Feroviar and the Romanian Railway Industry Association (AIF) underlined that the railway transport system has not been sufficiently analysed when drafting the General Transport Master Plan, moreover it is even wrongly considered that the Romanian railway transport is in decline, AECOM pointing out that this phenomenon is irreversible.
The specialists contradict the arguments of AECOM consultant highlighting the energy efficiency of railway transport, the safety, the importance for the economies of the regions crossed by railways and a more efficient use of space both at national and urban level, compared to road transport.
Although, based on wrongly interpreted data, a continuous decline of railway transport is envisaged, recent statistics mark the moderation of decline and even growth on some segments, of both the primary and the secondary network.
Both teachers and businessmen agreed that the future of the 4,000 km of rail network should be evaluated at least from the perspective of the impact over territorial development and safety.
“The consultant had meetings with the operators, with the representatives of the infrastructure manager, with the Railway Infrastructure Department of the Ministry of Transport, but proved it didn’t know anything about the market by proposing to reduce the railway network”, was one of the participants’ conclusions.
Although the deadline announced by the Government for public debates on the final observations related to the MPGT project is a very short one, 5-20 August, all those present in the debate pointed out that they want to get involved and to be consulted in the elaboration of a viable strategy on railway transport in Romania.
The Memorandum approved by the Government considers annulling or shifting the transport volumes from the mandatory public services obligations from secondary networks to Romania’s main network. It seeks to concentrate the activity on the network which provides connectivity between the large urban centres of the country and to ignore the mobility need of the people living in rural areas or in smaller towns which only have access to the secondary network. Thus, the document ignores the need to participate in the social, economic and cultural life of the taxpayers located in areas characterised by an average level of revenues much lower than in the case of the people living on the route of the main network.
The whole Romanian railway sector will have to find a common denominator to support the intensification and optimisation of the railway transport system and “solutions have to be presented to the decision makers who are not aware of the advantages of railways”.
The solutions proposed and considered by railway specialists include:
• the calculation of the contribution to the state budget and local budgets of the railway operators from ticket sale compared to the level of the same contributions (or the lack of contribution) from the illegal sale of tickets by some road transport operators. It is already estimated that at least 35-40% of the price of railway transport tickets is represented by taxes and interests which balances the amount of compensations received from the Romanian State. The road transport operators who sell tickets illegally don’t collect the same amount which allows them to use dumping prices;
• the calculation of the costs of dismantling parts of the railway section and building roads instead, of purchasing and operating bus-type transport systems compared to maintaining railway transport on the respective sections;
• developing an Action Plan to re-assess the conclusions drafted by AECOM in the MPGT draft. This Action Plan will include solutions proposed by specialists in the area to improve the efficiency and to develop (not bring to ruin) railway transport. The Action Plan will include solid arguments according to which the national railway network has to be kept to current dimensions, even further developed after European models and principles to sustain its usefulness, safety, its advantage compared to road transport and its capacity to increase mobility;
• the intensification of public communication from the railway sector to motivate for the political sphere the need for railway investments. A strong argument in this regard will be all European strategies (the most important of which are the White Paper on Transport, the four legislative Railway Packages or Shift2Rail Technological Initiative), strategies which support the idea of developing railway transport, increasing investments in maintenance and building new railways, as well as the positive impact of railway transport for economic development at suburban and regional level;
• CFR SA will have to elaborate a long-term strategy on railway infrastructure development. “The railway sector is a system and any strategy elaborated will have to consider this system. The strategy cannot be made on just a line or two and definitely not by reducing the network”, railway specialists believe.
In conclusion, it is very important to mention the Biennial Report of the European Commission on railway transport, a report which shows that “although this sector experience an indisputable growth period, many things could still be done regarding the efficiency and quality of services in several member states”. Romania is definitely no exception and should consider this “urge” which supports the development, not the limitation of the railway network.
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