Railway PRO aprilie

the railway business magazine

Year VIII ■ No. 2.4 (94) ■ 2013

Railway PRO

Railway freight transport needs to be information oriented Turkey wants to open the rail sector Russia forbids the extension of wagon lifecycle

Freight & Logistics

Журнал железнодорожный бизнес

Rail freight corridors must allow high-quality train paths Interview with Mr. Cesare Brand, Secretary General of the International Rail Transport Committee (CIT)

Железнодорожные грузовые коридоры должны позволить высокие путь качество йнтервью с Генеральный секретарь Международного комитета железнодорожного транспорта (МКЖТ) Цезаре Бранд

editor’s note 1 Ten years after the first official announcement of the intention for privatisation of the Romanian rail freight operator, the Romanian Government published the official announcement of the sale of a stake in this company, announcement which completes the list of pullbacks of the state from the railway sector, an attitude also adopted by other Balkan countries (Bulgaria, Greece).

Hungary has already taken this step five years ago and has fully sold the national operator to the Austrian national operator.

Discussions on the privatisations of freight operators are on the agenda of most new member states of the European Union, while neighbouring countries (Republic of Moldova, Turkey, Serbia etc.) are in different phases of reorganisation of railway undertakings aimed to align them to European standards.

Even though the reasons of Brussels representatives who promoted the concept of railway liberalisation and put pressure on the withdrawal of the “state from the operation and industrial sectors, are liberal (or social-liberal), we cannot say the same about the ideological fundaments of the Balkan stake sellers. Privatisation

programmes, especially in Romania, Bulgaria and Greece, are an in-extremis reaction to the effects of the economic crisis we are crossing and to the pressures of big financial institutions of which the macro-economic stability of the country depends.

If we take a look at what happens in Bulgaria on these days of early April, we can clearly notice the lack of popular support for this solution. As the government changed due to other social problems, the street has also reminded of BDZ’s privatisation and has asked the stop of the process for re-evaluation by the new government. All these in a context where the situation of the operator is very difficult and only a clear-cut intervention can ensure its presence in the market.

In Romania, the liberal minister of transport, who officially launched the sale announcement, has repeatedly said since the beginning of the year that he didn’t want the privatisation of the operator and only accepted the sale after the meetings with Troika. Even the privatisation strategy (and I don’t refer to the document, but to the actual actions) shows that the procedure is against the will of coordinators

from the Ministry of Transport, and not only. In full privatisation process, the importance of re-establishing a holding is still debated on, and the dimension of the package of shares proposed for sale has varied from 20% to 100% and then to a final 51%. Although competition authorities have conditioned the sale of CFR Marfa with the outsourcing of certain activities, procedures are pending and the legal necessary steps have not been taken yet since the autumn of 2012. The access of private capital to other countries in the structure of Balkan operators will trigger the reorganisation of companies and their resettlement in the market. Integrated in the activity of large western operators and in that of some eastern operators, new operators will force Balkan countries to reevaluate their relation with the rail market shifting to a real system of economic operators from that of railway managers.

And still the question lingers: Will the Balkans really sell their assets?

Balkans privatise their railways Issue published with the support of Romanian Railway Industry Association & Club Feroviar – The Railway Business Club Журнал издаётся при поддержке Асоциации Железнодорожной Промышленности и Club Feroviar – ЖД Клуб Деловых Людей

Балканы приватизируют свои железные дороги 10 лет спустя после первого официального объявления о стремлении к приватизации железнодорожного грузового оператора, Правительство Румынии опубликовало официальное объявление о продаже пакета акций данной компании. Данное объявление дополняет список объявлений в других балканских странах (Болгария, Греция) об отказе государства от участия в железнодорожном секторе. Венгрия уже сделала такой шаг 5 лет тому назад, когда бывший оператор железнодорожных грузовых перевозок был полностью продан австрийскому национальному оператору. Дискуссии насчет приватизации операторов грузовых перевозок составляют повестку дня большинства новых государствчленов Европейского союза, в то время, как соседние страны (Молдова, Турция, Сербия и т.д.) находятся на различных этапах реорганизации железнодорожных предприятий для приведения в соответствие с европейской моделью. Даже если мотивация Брюссельской группы, которая продвигала концепцию либерализации железнодорожной системы, и которая оказывает давление в целях “отступления” государства от операторского и промышленного сектора, имеет свои корни в либеральном направлении (или в социал-либеральном), совсем другое можно сказать насчет идеологических

фундаментов балканских продавцов акций. Программы приватизации, особенно в Румынии, Болгарии и Греции, являются экстремальной реакцией на последствия экономического кризиса, который у нас проявляются, и на давления со стороны крупных международных финансовых учреждений, от денег которых зависит макроэкономическая стабильность страны. Если посмотреть на происходящее в Болгарии в эти дни начала апреля, можно четко заметить отсутствие поддержки со стороны населения в плане внедрения такого решения. В контексте смены правительства, с учетом других социальных проблем, народ вспомнил о приватизации БДЖ и потребовал остановки процесса в целях рассмотрения ситуации новым правительством. И все это происходит в условиях, когда положение оператора является очень сложным, и лишь решающие действия могут ему обеспечить его присутствие на рынке. В Румынии либеральный министр транспорта, который официально объявил о приватизации, утвердил в различных обстоятельствах в начале года, что он не хотел бы приватизацию оператора, и изменил свою точку зрения лишь после встреч с Тройкой. В том числе стратегия приватизации (и здесь не имеется в виду только

документ, а конкретно предпринятые действия) показывает, что процедура осуществляется против желания координаторов Министерства транспорта и не только. В полном разгаре процесса приватизации еще говорят о важности восстановления холдинга, или размер пакета акций варьировал от 20% до 100%, чтобы в конце предложить к продаже лишь 51%. Хотя учреждения в сфере конкуренции обусловили продажу «ЧФР Марфэ» одновременно с выводом на аутсорсинг некоторых видов деятельности, процедуры проходят медленно, а начиная с осени 2012 года и по настоящее время не было предпринято шагов в плане законодательства. Проникновение частного или иностранного капитала в структуру балканских операторов приведет к реорганизации компаний и к изменению их положения на рынке. Интеграция в ряд крупных западных или восточноевропейских операторов приведет к тому, что новые операторы заставят балканские государства переоценить свое отношение к железнодорожному рынку и перейти от нынешней системы “управления железными дорогами” к реальной системе хозяйственных операторов. И все же остается один вопрос: Действительно ли Балканы будут приватизироваться?

April 2013 | www.railwaypro.com

2 cOntent leaders

MARKET DEVELOPMENT

РАЗВИТИЕ РЫНКА

20 26

Customs Union, a success for economic integration and the transport system Таможенный союз - успех в сфере экономической и транспортной интеграции

The establishment of the Customs Union, which has also stimulated the Common Economic Zone, represents the most important step in ensuring the free movement of freight and economic growth in the countries. Основные виды деятельности Таможенного союза, в который входят Россия, Белоруссия и Казахстан, обусловливают введение совместных таможенных нормативов, применение единых таможенных пошлин, отмены экономических ограничений и таможенных пошлин во взаимной торговле.

POLICIES & STRATEGIES

53 Number of cargo trains using CIM/SMGS increases

56 Mega-trucks are useless!

photo: club feroviar

MARKET DEVELOPMENT

Editor’s note the railway business magazine

Railway PRO

ISSN - 1841 - 4672

1 Balkans privatise their railways POLICIES & STRATEGIES

Publisher: Editura de Transport & Logistică S.R.L. 30, Virgiliu Street, Sector 1 Bucharest, postal code: 010881 Tel.:+4 021 224 43 85; +4 021 224 43 87 Mobile: +40 721 723 724 Fax: +4 021 224 43 86 E-mail: editors@railwaypro.com Web-site: www.railwaypro.com

16 Parliament rejects EU

budget and demands more flexibility and efficiency

32 Turkey expects new railway law

Editors: Elena Ilie elena.ilie@railwaypro.com Pamela Luică pamela.luica@railwaypro.com Department of translations: Alina Vuţulicu Paula Bădescu Gentil Traduceri SRL Graphic design: Petru Mureşan Layout and DTP: Petru Mureşan petru.muresan@railwaypro.com Photo: Radu Drăgan Marketing Manager: Cristina Trifon cristina.trifon@railwaypro.com Advertising Enquiries: advertise@railwaypro.com www. railwaypro.com/advertise

www.railwaypro.com | April 2013

34 CFR Marfă will be sold in

June. BDZ Cargo privatization is still pending

18 Romania: the new re-

industrialisation strategy aims at privatising state companies

19 Romania: the

regionalisation process will increase the absorption of EU funds

20 Customs Union, a success

Rail freight corridors must allow high-quality train paths Interview with Mr. Cesare Brand, Secretary General of the International Rail Transport Committee (CIT)

Железнодорожные грузовые коридоры должны позволить высокие путь качество Интервью с Генеральный секретарь Международного комитета железнодорожного транспорта (МКЖТ) Цезаре Бранд The Fourth Railway Package with its new law provisions is currently one of the most important aspects of the railway sector. The liberalisation of the domestic rail passenger transport market is an important element as well. В настоящее время IV Железнодорожный пакет со своими новыми законодательными положениями является одним из наиболее важных аспектов железнодорожного сектора. Также, либерализация внутреннего рынка железнодорожных пассажирских перевозок важная составная часть этого направления.

for economic integration and the transport system

MARKET DEVELOPMENT

30 Turkey wants to open the

50 “Viking Train” and “Cargo

rail sector

41 New freight terminal in Uzbekistan

42 Railway freight transport needs to be informationoriented

44 Greece and Bulgaria

create multimodal corridor between ports

36 For Greece, privatization of 45 Constanţa Seaport – ports equals economic growth For investors, a gateway to the European market

ЛИДЕРЫ

a strategic hub for Romania

46 Latvia and Kazakhstan

see railways as the most viable

10” - Two projects with significant potential in attracting freight to railways lex

22 Challenges in the governance of railway infrastructure

24 Fourth Railway Package proposes a single vehicle authorization for placing on the market

40 Russia forbids the

extension of wagon lifecycle asset management

49 Compensations for private solution for freight transport operators investing in port 47 Belarus prioritises the infrastructure

38 Outsourcing reduces

52 Baku – Tbilisi – Kars,

Statistics

development of logistics

new Europe-Asia corridor. Will Armenia join it?

48 Modal shift facilitated

through the development of dry ports

initial infrastructure investments

54 Freight statistics

cOntent 3

Редакционная статья

1 Балканы приватизируют свои железные дороги ПОЛИТИКА И СТРАТЕГИЯ

16 Парламент отклоняет

ПОЛИТИКА И СТРАТЕГИЯ

РАЗВИТИЕ РЫНКА

52 Баку – Тбилиси – Карс - 30 Турция намеревается новый коридор Европа – Азия. Армения тоже «в счет»?

53 Все больше грузовых

поездов использует бюджет ЕС и требует больше систему CIM/SMGS гибкости и эффективности

либерализовать железнодорожный сектор

41 Новый грузовой

терминал в Узбекистане

42 Железнодорожные

32 Турция сделает крупные 56 Часть Европы всё ещё выступает против инвестиции в ближайшие три года

грузовые перевозки недостаточно оснащены в плане информационных технологий

мега-грузовиков

34 Продажа «ЧФР Марфэ»

РАЗВИТИЕ РЫНКА

создают мультимодальный коридор между портами

состоится в июне. Положение «БДЖ Карго» еще не определено

36 Для Греции

44 Греция и Болгария

45 Порт Констанцы 18 Румыния: новая стратегия стратегический узел реиндустриализации касается приватизации государственных компаний

приватизация портов означает экономический рост Для инвесторов – это 19 Румыния: регионализация окно вступления на позволит увеличить европейский рынок освоение фондов ЕС

Румынии

46 Латвия и Казахстан

считают железную дорогу наиболее жизнеспособным решением для осуществления грузовых перевозок

49 Компенсации для частных 47 Белоруссия уделяет 20 Таможенный союз - успех приоритетное внимание операторов, которые инвестируют в портовую инфраструктуру

в сфере экономической и транспортной интеграции

развитию сектора логистики

48 Модальный обмен,

которому способствует развитие сухопутных портов

50 Поезд «Викинг» и «Карго 10» - Два проекта со значительным потенциалом для привлечения грузов на железнодорожный транспорт ЛЕКС

22 Вызовы в сфере управления железнодорожной инфраструктурой

24 Улучшенная

инфраструктура и техническая совместимость

40 Россия запрещает

продление срока эксплуатации грузовых вагонов СТАТИСТИКА

54 Железнодорожного статистика

April 2013 | www.railwaypro.com

news 5

photo: railwaybulletin.com

Russia: Expansion of the innovative, heavy-haul, freight cars in Russia is to be reviewed at governmental level. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev assigned Deputy Vice Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich to consider setting special tariffs for cargo transported in heavy-haul freight cars as well as supporting worn fleet scrapping.

Prime Minister gave the assignment in course of his visit to Siberian Car Repair Company, whose management raised these two questions.

HZ Infrastruktura launches railway rehabilitation works Croatia: HZ Infrastruktura said works have kicked off on the reconstruction of the Sisak train station and on the construction of a walkway over the Sisak-Caprag rail track with a combined value EUR 6.1 Million.

The reconstruction of the Sisak train station, worth EUR 5.25 Million, includes the upgrade of three tracks and a pedestrian crossing as well as the construction of the sewage and drainage, lighting and access systems. The works should be completed by the end of 2014.

The walkway over the Sisak-Caprag rail track will cost EUR 787 Thousand and should be completed by early October.

HZ Infrastruktura said that a number of railway upgrade projects are planned for 2013, including works on part of the Zagreb-Sisak railway, part of the TuropoljeVelika Gorica track, the Sisak-Petrinja railway and Sisak-Caprag-Novska rail track.

In addition, the reconstruction of a couple of tunnels in the Sisak area is planned for this and next year.

ADB to financially support rail development in Azerbaijan Azerbaijan: The Baku-based ADB resident office reports that the Azerbaijani Government has declared its interest in cooperation with the ADB in the development of the domestic railway system. The cooperation can be organized during the new strategic period, the office said.

Back in 2010 the government refused to use the Bank’s finances under the formal pretext of lack of investment project. Now the government’s position has changed in relation to the plans for restructuring of Azerbaijan Railways.

In 2010, ADB planned to approve the first tranche in the amount of USD 200 Million

More countries launch new transport service on the Black Sea-Baltic Sea axis International: The transport of freight on the Black Sea-Baltic Sea corridor could be more efficient from the point of view of both costs and time, believe the authorities in the Republic of Moldova. During the launch of a rail container transport service from the Port of Giurgiuleşti, the authorities said they hoped that railway freight transport could increase significantly.

“The first outcome of his agreement consists in delivering the possibility of freight transport from China

(EUR 155 Million) with overall MFF loan of USD 500 Million (EUR 387 Million).

Government aims to start privatization of OSE in the next three months Greece: The tender for the sale of a 100 percent stake in the Hellenic Railways Organization (OSE) is to start by the end of the second quarter of 2013, the Greek Government said in April. Development Minister Costis Hatzidakis and the managing director of Greece’s privatization fund, Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund’s (HRADF), Yiannis Emiris said that the aim is to pick an investor by the end of this year or the beginning of 2014.

photo: greece.greekreporter.com

Special tariffs for railway heavy transport

Россия: Расширение использования вагонов тяжелого транспорта в российской сети будет рассмотрена на правительственном уровне. Сербия: Железнодорожная компания «Железнице Србие» объявила о подписании ряда контрактов на ремонт и поставку подвижного состава. Хорватия: Компания «ХЖ Инфраструктура» объявила о запуске работ по реконструкции железнодорожной станции Сисак и о строительстве моста-развязки над линией Сисак-Капраг. В мире: Грузовые перевозки по коридору Черное море - Балтийское море могли бы быть эффективнее как с точки зрения затрат, так и с точки

in Constanţa Seaport and then to Giurgiuleşti Port. From here, the goods will be shipped by railways but the transport time will be significantly reduced due to easier border-crossing procedures”, declared the Deputy Minister of Transport Valeriu Ciubuc.

The Prime Minister Vlad Filat declared that this route will help reduce freight transport costs and attract foreign transit flows.

“The Republic of Moldova needs this functional port because it would provide easier access to transport which means lower costs.

Moreover, it also implies the participation to projects including transit”, declared Vlad Filat.

Hatzidakis said that a potential snag over state subsidies that was being examined by the European Commission has been overcome.

Emiris said the tender was made possible after OSE showed a small profit for 2012.

He added that efforts were also being made to launch a tender for ROSCO, the company responsible for the maintenance of rolling stock and railway equipment.

Mongolia needs private partner to build 260km line International: The Mongolian Government is seeking a private partner to build a railway from the Tavan Tolgoi coal field to the Chinese border.

For the construction of 260km, the government accepted the offers of 20 companies, 14 of which are foreign. Under the contract, the partner will be responsible for 49% of the project.

Tavan Tolgoi, one of the largest coal deposits in Mongolia, has an estimated 6.4 billion metric tons of reserves, 70% of it coking coal for steelmaking.

The state-controlled Development Bank of Mongolia will contribute USD 200 Million to the project.

зрения времени пребывания в пути. Болгария: Национальная компания железнодорожной инфраструктуры Болгарии объявила тендер на реабилитацию пассажирского вокзала города Бургаса. Греция: Тендер на продажу 100% акций Греческих железных дорог (OSE) будет проводиться до конца второго полугодия текущего года. Сербия: Российский производитель «Метровагонмаш» достиг соглашения с сербским оператором «Железнице Србие» по поводу поставки 25 дизельных поездов. Казахстан: Правительство Эстонии намеревается создать совместное предприятие, которое будет отвечать за осуществление проекта Rail Baltica.

April 2013 | www.railwaypro.com

6 news Russia to invest EUR 6.5 Billion in the modernisation of Baikal – Amur and Trans-Siberian railways

Authorities launch bid for Burgas station repair

photo: wikipedia.org

Bulgaria: Bulgaria’s state-run National Railway Infrastructure Company has invited bids in a tender for the rehabilitation of Burgas passenger railway station.

The project will be financed through SOP-T. Offers could be submitted by 13 May. The project should be completed in 20 months.

Estonia wants to set up JV for Rail Baltica

Russia: By 2017, Russia will invest around EUR 6.5 Billion in the modernisation of Baikal – Amur (BAM) and Trans-Siberian railways, said Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev on April, AFP and Reuters inform, quoted by Agerpres.

As the growth rhythm of Asian markets exceeds by far that of European countries, Russia plans to improve the infrastructure in Siberia in order to be able to support exports to countries with the highest demand.

“The value of additional financing to adjust the existing unbalance at the level of railway infrastructures for the railway lines BaikalAmur Maineline (BAM) and Trans-Siberian will amount to at least RUB 260 Billion (USD 8.35 average Billion, EUR 6.52014-2017 Billion)”, said Medvedev “The in the period is during reunion of a governmental not overthe EUR 2 Million,” Parts said. com-

Construction of a high-speed Astana-Almaty railway has started Kazakhstan: Construction of a highspeed Astana-Almaty railway starts in Kazakhstan, Tengrinews.kz and trend.az report citing Kazakhstan Transport and Communications Minister Askar Zhumagaliyev.

It is planned to start constructing the Astana-Almaty high speed rail line in 2013, Kazakh Minister of Transport and Communications Askar Zhumagaliyev said during a government hour in the Majilis (a lower chamber of the Kazakh parliament) on April 1st. This railway line will decrease the traveling time between the two cities from 12 to 5 hours. The new route will be around 1,011 km long, 400km shorter than the existing one. Kazakhstan President Nazarbayev made an instruction to build this high-speed railway branch in the beginning of 2013. He said that the line had to be constructed in 5-6 years.

mittee charged with the development of the Far East. “Without significant investments in the Far East, we will not reach any of our goals”, added Medvedev.

In turn, Russian Finances Minister Anton Siluanov said the financing of this “ambitious” railway modernisation programme should include private investments, as well as tariff increases and bond issue by the National Railway Company (RZD).

“The main problem is the need to develop Baikal – Amur and Trans-Siberian railways, we have to involve all potential financing resources”, said Siluanov.

According to RZD estimates, in 2011, freight traffic volume on Baikal – Amur and Trans-Siberian railways was of 16.2 million tonnes, but it could reach to 58.1 million tonnes in 2020.

RZD estimates that by 2020, the total costs of the modernisation of the two lines will amount to RUB 918 Billion (USD 29.5 Billion, EUR 22.7 Billion).

together with the railway companies CFL (Luxembourg) and SBB (Switzerland), have created a single structure for the management of the Pan-European Corridor 2. It will start operations on November 10.

The purpose of this decision is the improvement of services offered to customers in order to support the freight transfer from road to railway.

Corridor 2 connects Rotterdam, Antwerp, Lille, Luxembourg, Strasbourg, Basel, Nancy, Dijon, Lyon and Ambérieu-enBugey.

International: The Estonian Government plans to create a joint company to deal with the implementation of Rail Baltica. Consultations will start in April to set up the company by the end of 2013.

Although each member state has to carry out the preliminary project and evaluation of environmental effects by themselves, the position of Estonia is that the joint venture should be created as fast as possible. “It is important that the company would start looking at the project as a whole, would represent the business interests of the project in the planning stage and the stage of compiling the preliminary project, prepare financing of the project, development and marketing issues,” Estonian economy minister Juhan Parts explained at the government press conference.

The joint venture should be the developer of the project and later infrastructure manager and operator.

Estonia thinks that Riga is the suitable location for the joint venture. The share capital should be equal among members.

International: The railway infrastructure managers ProRail (Hollanda), Infrabel (Belgium) and RFF (France),

Belarus: On March, Belarus Railways began testing the electric locomotives on the Osipovichi-Bobruysk section, part of the Minsk-Kiev line. The electric locomotive services on this 42-km section will start next month.

This year the company plans to electrify also the Bobruysk-Zhlobin, ZhlobinGomel lines, as well as the MolodechnoLithuanian border line.The projects are part of the company’s electrification programme for the period 2011-2015, which

Россия: Россия будет инвестировать примерно 6,5 млрд. евро до 2017 года в модернизацию Байкал-Амурской магистрали (БАМ) и Транссибирской магистрали. В мире: Правительство Монголии находится в поисках частного партнера для строительства линии, которая будет соединять угольный бассейн Таван Толгой с границей Китая. Казахстан: В этом году запустятся работы по строительству высокоскоростной железнодорожной линии Астана - Алматы, которая будет соединять нынешнюю и бывшую столицу Казахстана.

Сербия: Эксперты Сербской железнодорожной компании запустят процесс определения элементов для подписания договора о сотрудничестве с Китаем. В мире: Администраторы железнодорожной инфраструктуры ProRail (Нидерланды), Infrabel (Бельгия) и RFF (Франция), CFL (Люксембург) и SBB (Швейцария) образовали единую структуру для управления 2-м Панъевропейским коридором. Белоруссия: Железные дороги Белоруссии проводят испытания электровозов по направлению

по участку Осиповичи-Бобруйск магистрали Минск - Киев. В мире: В этом году в Черногория выделят 6,8 миллионов евро на проекты железнодорожной инфраструктуры. В мире: Туркменистан, Афганистан и Таджикистан подписали меморандум понимания по вопросу строительства магистрали, соединяющей три страны. Румыния: В 2013 году по причине сокращения финансовой поддержки со стороны государства, и вместе с тем возникновения финансовых проблем, частные операторы железнодорожных пассажирских перевозок выбрали в пользу ограничения деятельности.

www.railwaypro.com | April 2013

Single structure for Corridor 2

Belarus continues the railway network electrification project

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photo: wikipedia.org

Partnership with China only needs the government’s approval to grant guarantees

Montenegro will invest around EUR 7 Million in railway infrastructure International: Montenegro will allocate this year EUR 6.8 Million to railway infrastructure projects, the government announced.Nevertheless, no details were offered about the projects to which the funds will go.The railway infrastructure manager in Montenegro is Zeljeznicka Infrastruktura Crne Gore.

Memorandum between Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan on rail development International: During a meeting in Ashgabat, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and his Afghan and Tajik counterparts Hamid Karzai and Emomali Rahmon have signed a memorandum of understanding for the construction of Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Tajikistan line.

“The implementation of this ambitious project will contribute not only for strengthen the ties of friendship and fruitful cooperation between the three neighbouring countries, but also in the formation of branched-to-date realities of transport infrastructure in the regional and international levels”, said in a press release the press agency Dovlet Khabarlary.

“The implementation of this project will contribute to the diversification of transport corridors of Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, implementation of possibilities of cooperation in the field of transport,... using the potential of the transport and communication network of the Central Asia, the Caspian and Black Sea regions,” said the authorities from Ashgabat.

Cut of state subsidies determines private rail operators to narrow their activities Romania: “In 2013, due to the permanent cut of state subsidies and of financial problems, private rail passenger operators have narrowed their activities. For example, we have given up the operation of Cluj NapocaTârgul Mureş section and, in 2013, we want

Serbia: Over the next months, experts from Serbian Railways will begin works on establishing the elements necessary for signing cooperation with China. As part of the railway infrastructure modernization project, the rail company is interested in introducing the Chinese technology on the telecommunication system on traffic reliability.

Modern Chinese technologies on Serbian railways could be successfully built in telecommunication network during the modernization process on the route Šid – Niš, as well as in Belgrade railway junction.

This kind of cooperation requires consent and decision of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, and if the budget state guarantees for

to operate on Ploieşti Sud-Măneciu section, a line which has not been in use for over a year and where the railway infrastructure is damaged”, declared Constantin Oprea, Deputy General Manager of Transferoviar Călători, during the Conference “Optimisation of railway passenger transport services”, organised by Club Feroviar and the Romanian Railway Industry Association on 20-21 March 2013 in Sibiu.Apart from these routes, the authorities have chosen to shut down several lines which amount hundreds of km thus shrinking the operation area, explained Oprea. However, the transport services delivered by TFC and competitive prices have increased the number of passengers on the route Bucharest-Olteniţa and have reduced road traffic. “We have managed to determine people to choose rail transport against the road public transport and road traffic between Bucharest and Oltenita has thus been reduced by around 20-30%, because we have managed to attract passengers who used to choose road transport”, added Oprea.

the next year are received, project realization could be started in 2014.

To set the next steps to take, on March 20 the Director General of Serbian Railways Dragoljub Simonović met a Chinese delegation which included the representatives of Huawei technologies.

“Serbian Railways is trying to create a good business environment for all companies that want to invest in modernization of this traffic system and in line with that it is our interest to make cooperation with this, but also with other Chinese companies more qualitative and mutually successful”, said Director General Dragoljub Simonović to partners from China.

During the meeting, current activities were discussed as well as plans for intensifying this cooperation, and discussions with representatives of Chinese Exim Bank on possibilities for financing the project of modernization of Serbian Railways.

A further amount of about CZK 20 Billion (EUR 773 Mil) will be probably sent to the country through the Connecting European Facility (CEF). Most of the funding will go to the transport operational fund, like in the previous seven-year budget period.

The ministry will prefer a smaller number of larger construction projects in the new period in order to avoid errors in preparations.

Zeleznice Srbije to upgrade rolling stock Serbia: State-owned company Zeleznice Srbije said it is scheduled to sign rolling stock repairs and supply deals worth a combined RSD 1 Billion (EUR 9 Million) with six local contractors. The deals will be signed with Koncern Fabrika Vagona, MIN Vagonka, MIP RSV, Inter-Mehanika, Sinvoz and Zelvoz. Tapping financing provided by state-run Development Fund of Serbia, Zeleznice Srbije plans to overhaul this year 238 freight cars, 19 passenger cars and eight locomotives.

Authorities want to use EU funds to finance major projects Czech Rep.: The EU will contribute by CZK 100 Billion (EUR 3.8 Billion) for the construction of transport infrastructure projects to the Czech Republic after 2014, of which CZK 80 Billion (EUR 3 Bln) is to come from cohesion funds, Transport Minister Zbynek Stanjura said.

Чехия: ЕС выделит около 3,8 млрд. евро на проекты транспортной инфраструктуры Чехии после 2014 года. Азербайджан: Азиатский банк развития объявил о том, что азербайджанское правительство проявляет интерес к сотрудничеству в плане развития национального железнодорожного сектора. Украина: Европейский инвестиционный банк намеревается предоставить украинской

photo: wikipedia.org

will ensure the execution of an electrified north-south route between Lithuania, Minsk and the Ukrainian border.

железнодорожной компании «Укрзалізниця» кредит под государственную гарантию. В мире: Испанская железнодорожная индустрия на очень хорошем счету для получения контрактов в Турции. В мире: Инвестиции в размере 1,16 млрд. евро на осуществление проекта «Crossrail» полностью возьмет на себя государственный бюджет Великобритании.

April 2013 | www.railwaypro.com

8 news New investments in Corridor X INTERNATIONAL: Slovenian railway operator Slovenske Zeleznice plans to invest EUR 1.4 Billion in its rail lines along pan-European Corridor X through 2020, said the director of its infrastructure unit, Bojan Kekec. Following the investments, all rail sections along the Corridor X in Slovenia will be electrified and will have double tracks, allowing speed of up to 160 km/h.

In addition, HZ Infrastruktura (Croatia) said it plans to invest around EUR 2 Billion

EIB could grant new loan to Ukrzaliznytsia Ukraine: The European Investment Bank plans to provide a government secured loan to Ukraine’s State Railway Administration of Ukraine (Ukrzaliznytsia) with the maximum repayment term to realize a project on the construction of the new Beskydsky railway tunnel, Ukrzaliznytsia reported.

The issue was discussed at a meeting between Ukrzaliznytsia Director General Serhiy Bolobolin and representatives of EIB and the International Finance Corporation.

UK: Crossrail fully funded by state International: The full GBP 1 Billion (EUR 1.16 Billion) bill for Crossrail trains will now be met by the public purse after the government decided that attempts to secure private finance risked delaying the project beyond 2018.

The state had previously planned to make a GBP 350 Million (EUR 409 Million) contribution. Last September, bidders were invited to apply for a government guarantee to help secure financing in an attempt to accelerate the delivery of the project. The offer apparently did not go far enough to guarantee that trains would be www.railwaypro.com | April 2013

ArcelorMittal selected winner for transport services to the Czech Republic and Poland

built on time.

Crossrail, London’s east-west line joining Heathrow airport to Canary Wharf and beyond, is scheduled to open in late 2018.

The British Department for Transport hopes to conclude the train delivery contract for Crossrail by 2014 and that trains would be delivered and tested starting with 2017.

photo: www.crossrail.co.uk

Spain to win more contracts in Turkey International: The Spanish railway industry has a great deal of chances to win contracts in Turkey, the Spanish authorities said after Spain was the honour guest of “Eurasia Rail Fair 2013”, organised in Istanbul.

“After our meeting with the Turkish Ministry of Transport, we are convinced that the Spanish undertakings have a remarkable present and future in Turkey”, declared Mario Garcés, under-secretary of the Ministry of Development of Spain.

The Turkish Minister of Transport Binali Yildirim has expressed the satisfaction of Turkish authorities about Spanish companies working in this sector in Turkey, especially OHL, which participated in the works for Istanbul-Ankara high-speed line and in the project of the tunnel connecting the European and the Asian sides of Turkey.

tion, with a registered capital of CNY 1.04 Trillion (EUR 127 Billion), will be a wholly state-owned enterprise administered by the central government and supervised by the Ministry of Transport.

The specific date for the establishment was not unveiled in the statement.

in rail tracks on pan-European Corridor X by 2020 to comply with EU standards.

By the end of 2020, the Corridor X railway section passing through Croatia will be outfitted to accommodate train speeds of up to 160 km/h, the whole section will have double tracks while remote controls and GSM-Railway will be introduced.

Some of the rail sections have already been upgraded, on some of them works are still in progress while all others are in the phase of project design so they can apply for funding from the EU’s Structural and Cohesion Funds starting from 2015.

RZD will build 650 km of new rail lines Russia: The necessary investments

amount to EUR 47.5 Billion. The sum also includes electrification costs, the installation of the catenary and the construction of electric stations etc.

In 2012, RZD built only 2.8 km of new lines and 117.3 km of second track.

In 2011, the company doubled 186.9 km of railways, but did not build new lines.

Set up of China Railway Corporation – approved by Chinese authorities International: The Chinese Government has approved the establishment of the China Railway Corporation to perform the business functions of the former Ministry of Railways. The planned corporaВ мире: Компания «Словенске Железнице» намеревается инвестировать около 1,4 млрд. евро в «HZ Infrastruktura» и выделить 2 млрд. евро на реабилитацию Коридора № 10. Россия: ОАО «РЖД» построить 650 километров новых железнодорожных линий до 2020 года. В мире: Китайское правительство одобрило создание корпорации «China Railway Corporation», которая возьмет

International: International rail transporter AWT has been declared the winner of a tender for the transportation of iron ore from Bosnia to industrial giant ArcelorMittal’s Central European plants in the Czech Republic and Poland. Shipments amounting to more than half a million tonnes of iron ore will commence in March.The iron ore comes from the Omarska Mine, operated by Bosnia-based ArcelorMittal Prijedor.

The mine annually produces in excess of two million tonnes of ore, all of which is consumed within the Mittal Group.

The destinations for the transported iron ore will be the ArcelorMittal plants in Ostrava, the Czech Republic, and in the Polish cities of Krakow and Dąbrowa Górnicza. AWT will secure the shipments along the complete route, from Bosnia, through Croatia, Hungary and Slovakia to the Czech Republic and Poland. The company will also provide the associated technical and operational equipment and services, including the required rail wagons. Six loaded trains will be continuously on the move between Southern and Central Europe.

Authorities plans comprehensive rail modernisation programme Ukraine: The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine will pay attention to the upgrading of high-speed rail routes and the creation of new ones on the basis of Ukrainian-made electric trains, Ukrainian Premier Mykola Azarov told journalists.

He said that at present, tests of a new electric train made by Kriukov Car Building Works are being finished. “We’ll have a Ukrainian-made high-speed train, which will be able to cope with our climate”.

Azarov also said that in the future it is foreseen that a large-scale program on the upgrade of railway tracks will be launched including fencing high-speed lines and eliminating level crossings on these lines. на себя коммерческие функции бывшего Министерства железных дорог. В мире: Оператор AWT был объявлен победителем контракта на транспорт железной руды из Боснии и Герцеговины на заводы «Арселор Миттал» в Чехию и Польшу. Украина: Кабинет министров Украины уделит внимание модернизации высокоскоростных соединений и созданию новых путей сообщения.

10 news

Russia: RZD is interested in attracting

a foreign investor to finance the development of “Finland” rail station in Sankt Petersburg, consultancy company TransTerminal Proekt that deals with this project said. The total cost is priced at RUB 15 Billion (EUR 370 Million).

Discussions with Finnish companies have already been launched and Scandinavian countries are expected to generate high interest in the project. Official negotiations will be initiated soon. The rail station was built in 1870 and has traffic of 12 million passengers per year.

ZSSK Cargo and PKP Cargo merger not on cards yet International: The merger of the Slovak state-owned railway company ZSSK Cargo with its bigger Polish counterpart PKP Cargo is not on cards at the moment, wrote a spokesperson of PKP Cargo. He said that unless Cargo Slovakia reduces its debt and restructures the company PKP Cargo will consider the acquisition as too problematic. ZSSK Cargo’s current debt is EUR 600 Million.

New railway law will drive private sector participation Nigeria: Minister of Transport, Senator

Idris Umar, said that a new bill seeking participation of the private sector in the railway operation is underway which according to him, will drive activity in the sector. Senator Umar who made this known while speaking at an event in Lagos, recently, said that his ministry has proposed a review of the Nigeria Railway Corporation(NRC) Act, and the draft copy of the new bill will soon be submitted to the Federal Executive Council, FEC. The Nigeria Railway Corporation has welcomed the move. The Assistant Director, Public Relations, Mr. David Ndanusa, said the new law if passed will open up new frontiers of opportunity for the railway in Nigeria.

SBB Cargo to ensure transit traffic for DB Schenker International: SBB Cargo, the freight transport division of Swiss company SBB, will take over the services provided so far by BLS Cargo for DB Schenker for freight traffic through Switzerland. The negotiations between DB Schenker and BLS Cargo have failed because SBB Cargo has submitted a more attractive offer, said BLS Cargo director, Dirk Stahl. BLS Cargo believes that this restructuring of activities will allow it to improve its profitability which has been strongly hit by the nonprofitable exploitation of cross-border www.railwaypro.com | April 2013

High-speed line to connect the cities of Konya, Karaman and Mersin turkey: A proposed rail link connecting the Anatolian cities of Konya, Karaman and Mersin will be key to the country’s 2023 plans of boosting annual exports to USD 500 Billion and becoming a top 10 economy, Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan said. The link would be part of a growing trans-national rail network that would help facilitate Turkey’s trade goals over the next decade. Last month the government took another notable step in facilitating trade with the opening of a RussiaSamsun ferry service, which Ankara says will transport 200,000 tonnes of freight annually between Eastern Europe, Turkey and the Mid-

traffic due to low tariffs, the increase of the infrastructure access charges and of the unfavourable franc-euro exchange rate.

RZD 2020 development programme includes private investments for the first time Russia: RZD included RUB 156-406 Billion (EUR 3.8-10 Billion) of private investment in the General Scheme of Railways Development in 2013-2020, “Vedomosti” newspaper writes, quoted by rzd-partner.com. The development plan has already been submitted to the Russian Government, but the projects, into which businessmen could invest, have not been specified. Private investment is envisaged only in the conservative and innovative scenarios of development. In the first case, it is to make 2.2% of the total sum needed by the monopoly, and in the second case – 3.5%. The General Scheme developed by RZD envisages investing RUB 2-5.2 Trillion in the infrastructure.

The largest projects are the expansion of the Baikal-Amur Mainline (EUR 4.4 Billion) and the Trans-Siberian Mainline (EUR 18.8 Billion) and the development of the Moscow Transport Hub (up to RUB

Турция: Министр экономики Турции Зафер Чаглаян заявил, что не существует такого предложенного проекта, который бы касался строительства высокоскоростной линии, соединяющей города Конья, Караман и Мерсин. Проект является приоритетным в рамках Стратегии 2023. Россия: Компания РЖД заинтересована привлечь инвестора для финансирования развития «Финского вокзала» в Санкт Петербурге. Об этом заявила консалтинговая компания «ТрансТерминал Проект», занимающаяся данным проектом. В мире: Слияние словацкой компании железнодорожных грузовых перевозок «ZSSK Cargo» и аналогичной польской компании «PKP Cargo» в настоящий момент не является актуальным. Об этом заявил официальный представитель

dle East. “In the last 10 years Turkey’s exports have risen from USD 36 Billion to USD 152 Billion today,” he said, adding that the government wants exports to grow to USD 500 Billion annually by 2023.

photo: TCDD

Foreign investors needed for the development of Sankt Petersburg rail station

1 Trillion).

The company had not included private investments in its General Scheme before.

The previous version of the General Scheme developed by RZD envisaged only public investment. Also, RZD was going to loan RUB 400 Billion (EUR 9.7 Billion) for the period to 2020.

Earlier state companies could not attract private investment because of the lack of the law about public-private partnership.

The law is now being discussed by the State Duma, but is has not been adopted yet.

NISz discusses the installation of GSM-R with three bidders Hungary: The National Infocommunications Service Company (NISz) will start talks with three of four bidders in a tender to build a “Global System for Mobile Communications – Railway” (GSM-R) system. NISz said it is starting talks with a consortium of Kapsch Carrier Com and MVM Ovit, a consortium of SELEX Electronik and Huawei Technologies, and with Nokia Siemens Networks. ZTE Hungary, which also bade, did not meet the requirements, NISz added. NISz puts the project’s cost

компании «PKP Cargo». Нигерия: Министр транспорта, сенатор Идрис Умар, уточнил, что на данный момент рассматривается новый законопроект, который касается вовлечения частного сектора в деятельность железнодорожного транспорта, а это, по мнению Умара, может способствовать восстановлению данного направления. Ангола: Африканское государство объявило о том, что оно планирует вновь открыть - после 40 лет перерыва - железную дорогу, которая в прошлом использовалась для перевозки меди в порт Лобито, расположенный у Атлантического океана. В мире: «SBB Cargo», подразделение грузовых перевозок швейцарской компании «SBB», возьмет на себя услуги грузовых перевозок для «DB Schenker» на территории Швейцарии, которыми до сих пор занималась компания «BLS Cargo».

news 11 at HUF 22.6 Billion (EUR 75 Million).

European Union funding will cover 85% of the total.

Peru to invest EUR 13 Billion in infrastructure Peru: The government has initiated an ambitious plan for expanding the infrastructure in order to preserve the economic dynamism of the past ten years. The objective of Peruvian authorities is to build and improve all types of infrastructure by 2016, following investments of around EUR 13 Billion.

The improvement of the transport infrastructure will aim at transforming the country into the logistics hub of Latin America in transports through the Pacific and Asia. The improvement of the road and railway network will also permit a better exploitation of the country’s agricultural potential. An important project is also the commissioning of the second line of Lima Metro since the public transport network in the city is obsolete and inefficient. This project, co-financed by the state, will require an investment of EUR 4 Billion. One of the demands to bid for the concession of this project is that the strategic partner would have a patrimony of at least USD 500 Million (EUR 387 Million) and a 10-year experience in similar projects.

RZD sale, approved by State Property Management Agency russia: The privatization plan for Russian Railways, has been approved, The Moscow Times writes quoting a press release issued by the State Property Management Agency. “The roadmap for Russian Railways’ privatization, which envisages a private and public placement of the company’s shares in 2014-16 and the government’s retention of qualified control, has been fully approved,” the agency said.

The privatization scheme involves the sale of 5% through a share offering in favour of the National Wealth Fund and the Pension Fund at the first stage. In October 2012, the

of Zambia in August, Luis Lopes Teixeira, technical director of Caminho de Ferro de Benguela, said.

Cargo will be transported along the refurbished 1,344km line linking Lobito with Luau on the Zambian border. Once a branch line inside Zambia is completed in December, Lobito will be able to compete with ports in East Africa for copper exports from Zambia and Democratic Republic of Congo, which together account for about 7.4% of world production of the metal, according to the US Geological Service.

Copper is the biggest export of both nations. The route will offer shorter access to European and American markets via the

Angola to restore copper railway after 40-year gap

Россия: РЖД заложила в генеральную схему развития железных дорог частные инвестиции в размере 156-406 миллиардов рублей (3,8 млрд. евро - 10 млрд. евро) в течение 20132020 годов. Об этом пишет газета «Ведомости», которую цитирует rzd-partner.com. Венгрия: Венгерская Национальная компания по предоставлению информационнокоммуникационных услуг (NISz) в прошлом месяце объявила о том, что приступит к переговорам с тремя из четырех участников тендера на осуществление системы GSM-R для венгерской железнодорожной сети.

Перу: Правительство в Лиме инициировало смелый план расширения инфраструктуры для поддержания динамичности экономки, которая наблюдалась за последние десять лет. Цель перуанских властей заключается

photo: www.angola-today.com

Angola: The African state plans to restart a railway used to bring copper metal to the Atlantic Ocean port of Lobito from some of the world’s richest copper fields, after a fourdecade halt due to a civil war, bdlive.co.za informs quoting Bloomberg. The line from the port of Lobito will reach the border

в строительстве и улучшении всех типов инфраструктуры до 2016 года, в результате инвестиций в объеме около 13 миллиардов евро. Россия: План приватизации Российских железных дорог был утвержден. Об этом пишет газета «The Moscow Times», ссылаясь на прессрелиз в адрес Агентства по управлению государственным имуществом. В мире: Национальные железнодорожные компании России, Белоруссии и Казахстана получат дополнительные доходы от использования инфраструктуры и дивиденды от акций, которыми они владеют в Совместной логистической компании (UTLC). В мире: Комитет ТРАН Европейского парламента назначил докладчиков, которые будут вести дебаты по всем аспектам, входящим в IV Железнодорожный пакет. Все шесть докладчиков являются членами Европейского парламента.

Deputy Minister of Transport announced that the sale of RZD would take place through the initial public offering launched by the end of 2013 and the Minister of Development said the government was planning to implement a pilot project for the sale of 5%. At the same time, the press announced that 25% in the RZD shares could be sold by the end of 2013 at a cost of RUB 260 Billion (USD 7.38 Billion). But the 25% stake would be worth RUB 700 Billion (USD 22 Billion) wrote Vedomosti in the summer of 2012 quoting the Minister of Finances.

The privatization of the railways is part of Russia’s privatization plan which includes several important national companies.

Atlantic, and restore Angola’s part of an 84year-old transcontinental rail network that transports some Congolese and Zambian copper, cobalt, manganese and zinc east to Beira in Mozambique and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.

CFR SA Board presented its management plan to the World Bank Romania: CFR SA Board met, in April, the delegates of the World Bank. On the occasion, CFR SA’s CEO Dimitris Sophocleous presented to the officials of the World Bank the key points of the company’s positive transformation strategy, according to the management plan and the administration plan. In April, CFR SA also initiates the procedure of recruiting the new management and continues the implementation of the commitments to the international financial institutions. CFR SA will develop this collaboration procedure with at least three independent companies specialized in recruiting human resources in order to select the staff for the five positions of Chief Officer. In parallel, the procedure for selecting the candidates for filling in the seven vacant director positions will be also carried out by an internal commission of the company. The Board of CFR SA said that they saught to increase the turnover by improving the business relationships with the current customers and by identifying new potential areas to increase incomes.

Meanwhile, the company has initiated discussions with the suppliers in order to reduce the price of electric energy.

Baku-Tbilisi-Kars commissioned in 2014 International: The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will be fully commissioned in 2014, Azerbaijani Deputy Transport Minister Musa Panahov declared. “Currently, Georgia and Turkey are working on the development of the project that will be completed next year”, declared Panahov.

Creation of a new rail link envisages the construction, rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Marabda-Akhalkalaki April 2013 | www.railwaypro.com

12 news

International: The European Parlia-

ment’s Committee on Transport and Tourism officially appointed the rapporteurs who will be leading the discussions on all aspects of the Fourth Railway Package.

MEP Said el Khadraoui will be the rapporteur on the proposal amending directive 2012/34 (also known as the Recast of the

railway section, except the station, as well as the construction work from Akhalkalaki to the Turkish border (Kartsakhi). The reconstruction of the Marabda-Akhalkalaki section includes work in three phases: section -Marabda Tetritskaro - 29.2 km, section of Tetritskaro-Tsalka - 49.7 km and Tsalka-Akhalkalaki-- 74.1 km. The project also includes the construction of a 105km line in Georgia for which Azerbaijan has allocated a credit of USD 775 Million.

High-speed transport records growth Ukraine: Ukrainian Railway HighSpeed Company has carried one million passengers since the launch of the Intercity+ trains produced by Hyundai Rotem Company (May 2012). “The loading of Intercity+ trains in March 2013 had reached 50%, while in 2012 it was about 48%. Thanks to the introduction of the flexible tariff system in the first class trains, passengers are more actively buying tickets 45 days before travel”, said Director of Ukrainian Railway High-Speed Company Leonid Loboiko. Ukrainian Railway HighSpeed Company is a SPV of Ukrzaliznytsia charged with organizing high-speed mobility in Ukraine. The first journey on the Kyiv-Lviv route took place on May 25, 2012. Today the company operates 12 interregional dual system high-speed electric trains: ten electric trains made by Hyundai Rotem and two electric trains made by Skoda Vagonka.

Another section of Corridor X will be modernised until 2014 Croatia: The state-owned railway infrastructure operator HZ Infrastruktura said that the EUR 40 Million upgrade of the Okucani-Novska rail track will be completed by the end of 2014. The contract on the rehabilitation of the line also involves signalling and communications works for around 20 km of double line on the section Okučani – Novska, in the stations Okučani and Halt Rajić of Corridor X. The contract was won by Bombardier Transportation (in November 2012) who will implement the Interflo 250 ERTMS/ETCS Level 1, a system that will permit trains to run at speeds of 160 km/h. The contract on the implementation of the signalling system is worth EUR 8.56 Million. www.railwaypro.com | April 2013

New funds for the EU neighbourhood policy

First Railway Package), MEP Mathieu Grosch will be the rapporteur on the revision of regulation 1370/2007 on Public Service Obligations, MEP Roberts Zile will be the rapporteur on the revised regulation establishing the European Rail Agency, MEP Michael Cramer will be rapporteur on the revised directive on Safety, MEP Izaskun Bilbao will the rapporteur on the revised Interoperability directive and MEP Jaromir Kohlicek will be responsible for issue of the repeal of regulation 1192/69.

International: The European Commission has decided to allocate EUR 200 Million to the Neighbourhood Investment Facility for transport and energy projects. With these funds and with loans from EU development banks more competitive financing structures could be ensured for complex projects in the eastern and southern neighbourhood countries. The projects for which funds will be allocated will ensure the interconnection of the energy and transport infrastructure between the EU and neighbouring countries and among neighbouring countries themselves. Funds will be also allocated to projects concerning the climate change, economic development and small undertakings. “Since its launch in 2008, the Neighbourhood Investment Facility has proven to be a vital tool for EU cooperation in the Neighbourhood region. It helps our partners to make a difference in the areas where it is needed most, like energy, transport, the environment or the social sector.”, said Štefan Füle, Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy.

Creation of UTLC will attract more cargo International: The national railway companies in Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan will receive additional revenues from the use of the infrastructure and dividends from their shares in the UTLC (Unified Transport and Logistics Company). Shareholders will manage the company on a parity basis, therefore UTLC will receive full support in the spheres of customs and tariff policy. Also, it will stimulate implementation of universal standards of transport and logistics services, transportation technologies, and the payment system in the CES. “All this will increase the attractiveness of services offered to cargo owners and strengthen the position of Russian Railways holding company,” said Vadim Morozov, First Vice President of RZD.

Vietnamese rail project needs over USD 2 Billion

photo: www.farrail.net

TRAN Committee appointed the rapporteurs in charge of the IV Railway Package

Румыния: Руководство «ЧФР СА» уже провело встречу с делегацией Всемирного банка. Генеральный директор компании «ЧФР СА» Димитрис Софоклеус представил официальным лицам Всемирного банка ключевые составляющие стратегии положительного преобразования компании, согласно плану управления и плану администрирования. В мире: Линия Баку - Тбилиси Карс (БTK) будет полностью сдана в эксплуатацию в 2014 году. Об этом заявил Министр транспорта Азербайджана, Муса Панахов. В настоящее время Грузия и Турция все еще работают над осуществлением проекта, а в прошлом году линия будет завершена в полном объеме. Украина: Железнодорожный оператор высокоскоростного транспорта Украины (Ukrainian Railway High-Speed Company) перевозил 1 миллион пассажиров

International: The investments necessary for the railway project in Vietnam will amount at over USD 2 Billion (EUR 1.5 Billion), declared RZD President Vladimir Yakunin. However, these estimates are even harder to achieve for the time being as the project has not yet been made. In March, RZD, Vietnam Railways and An Vien Company signed a memorandum of intent on cooperation for the design and construction of railway infrastructure in Vietnam which, a source says will include the construction of a 180km long railway. с момента сдачи в эксплуатацию поездов Интерсити+, поставленных корейской компанией «Hyundai Rotem» (май 2012). Хорватия: Администратор железнодорожной инфраструктуры Хорватии «HZ Infrastruktura» оъявил о том, что для модернизации железнодорожного отсека Окукани Новуска будет выделено 40 млн. евро В мире: Инвестиции, необходимые для осуществления железнодорожного проекта во Вьетнаме составят более 2-х миллиардов долларов (1,5 млрд. евро). Об этом заявил президент ОАО «РЖД», Владимир Якунин В мире: Европейская комиссия приняла решение выделить 200 миллионов евро в рамках «Инвестиционного инструмента для соседства» на осуществление проектов транспортного и энергетического направления.

14 news

romania: Starting with April, Bucharest joins the world’s capitals where passengers can use their mobiles to pay for their trip and access to the underground.

Orange and Vodafone customers can pay for a trip by underground by sending an SMS to 1700 and they will receive an SMS with the confirmation of the payment.

They can also choose to buy 2 or 10 journeys by sending the text 2C or 10C to the short number 1700. The price of a journey is EUR 0.50, the price of 2 journeys is EUR 0.90 and the price of 10 journeys is EUR 3.25, without VAT. Access to the station will be made by dialling 1700 and putting the handset of the mobile close to the special validating machines in the metro stations, in the platform access area.

The mobile will issue a sound signal which will be interpreted by the validating machines which will determine whether there are valid tickets in the customer’s account and will permit access to the platform.

Transmashholding to deliver trains for Baku Metro

photo: tmholding.ru

Azerbaijan: Baku Metro is going to purchase three new trains produced by Transmashholding, a decision adopted following the series of tests carried out in January with five new wagons.

The new coaches are equipped with climate control and heating of both passenger and operator’s cabins.

It is planned to use the new coaches at the Avtovokzal and Memar Ajami 2 subway stations which are planned to be commissioned next year.

At present, the length of Baku Metro lines is 34.6 km and now has two lines. In future the number of subway lines is planned to be increased to five, the overall length up to 119 km and the number of stations up to 76. The metro has been operating since 1967 and has 23 stations. A 20-year programme for the development of the metro was adopted earlier.

Moscow has already 7 intermodal transport hubs Russia: The Directorate of Railway Stations, a subsidiary of Russian Railways, has presented the first seven intermodal transport hubs built in Moscow for facilitating transfer between transport modes and for providing parking lots. The project, developed under a cooperation agreement between Russian Railways and Moscow’s city government provides for the construction of 57 transport hubs in www.railwaypro.com | April 2013

This new station access system was tested last year and was considered valid after the processing of over 10,000 validations in the 7 pilot stations. Therefore, Metrorex has decided to support its customers by expanding the experiment on the entire transport network.

The acquisition of tickets using mobiles relies on the Data-Over-Voice technology, a unique service in the world and Metrorex is the only beneficiary of this technology. Using the voice channel of the customer’s mobile, Data-Over-Voice ensures the safe and efficient transfer of online transaction messages between the sale point (Terminal 2pay) and the Processing Centre 2pay for payment approvals or other transactions.

photo: Club Feroviar

Metrorex introduces mobile payment

Russia’s capital.

The first seven transport hubs were developed at Domodedovo station (two), Tsaritsyno, Yasenevo, Dmitry Donskoy Boulevard, Lianozovo and Bibirevo.

Works are developed with funds from investors. Over RUB 500 Million (EUR 12.5 Million)have been thus attracted in 2012 and in 2013 plans include the raise up of up to RUB 5 Billion (EUR 125 Million).

Sofia to launch new tender on the extension of the metro network Bulgaria: Sofia Municipality will initiate a tender for the extension of the city metro network to the south.

The design of the extension is being developed and it will be ready in two weeks, Capital Daily reported, quoting Stoyan Bratoev, the executive director of metro operator Metropolitan.

The extension will have 1.2 km and a

Румыния: Начиная с апреля месяца, Бухарест тоже войдет в число мировых столиц, где можно использовать мобильный телефон для оплаты проезда. Азербайджан: Бакинский метрополитен приобретет подвижной состав у российского производителя «Трансмашхолдинг». Такое решение было принято в результате целого ряда испытаний пяти новых вагонов, проведенных в январе месяце. Россия: Директорат вокзалов (дочерняя компания РЖД) представил первые семь интермодальных транспортных узлов, построенных в Москве. Болгария: Мэрия Софии объявит тендер на расширение

station. The project will have to be finalized by 2015 and will benefit from European funds.

First trams for Al Sufouh Tramway to arrive December 2013 International: Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman and Executive Director of the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) confirmed during a site visit to inspect progress on various aspects of the project, that the first Alstom Citadis 402 tram will arrive in December 2013.

During the visit he was accompanied by Adnan Al Hammadi, CEO of the RTA Rail Agency, who advised that the project was on target for completion as intended by 2014, as the overall project completion is now at 52%.

The tram is 44 metres long, has a gold first class suite, a separate cabin for women and children, and a silver carriage. Each one will be fitted out to the latest international standards, with entertainment displays and an automatic fare collection system.

Al Tayer told Emirates News Agency WAM that production of the trams in France is 30% complete.

CAF to deliver rolling stock to Freiburg International: CAF has received the first order for its Urbos 3 low-floor LRV from a German customer after signing a contract with Freiburg Transport (VAG) for 12 metre-gauge vehicles, which will support the expansion of the city’s light rail network.

The vehicles will be 43m long and will accommodate up to 250 passengers, 82 of them seated.

The first six vehicles will be delivered in 2015, while the remainder will enter service in 2017. VAG has not disclosed the purchase price for the vehicles, although it has said that the value of the contract was less than EUR 40 Million.

метрополитенной сети города на юг. В мире: Первые трамваи поступят в город Аль Суфух, Дубай, в декабре. Об этом заявил исполнительный директор Транспортного Управления Дубая (RTA). В мире: В компанию CAF поступил заказ на легкие транспортные средства с низкой платформой Урбос 3, после подписания договора с фирмой «Фрайбург Транспорт» (VAG) на 12 транспортных средств. В мире: Транспортная компания «Даугавпилс» (на юго-востоке Латвии) и Agmen Consulting Bureau подписали договор на сумму 4,6 млн. (6,5 млн.евро) на поставку 12 трамваев.

news 15 Daugavpils city buys 12 trams International: Daugavpils transport company (south-eastern Latvia), Belkomunmas and Agmen Consulting Bureau have signed a contract worth LVL 4,6 Million (EUR 6.5 Million) on supplying 12 four-axle and six-axle trams to Daugavpils and training the company’s employees in tram usage and maintenance.

The new trams will be out on the city’s streets in July. The trams will be tested before they are accepted into operation, and they could begin to operate regular routes in August.

Chişinău could elaborate a feasibility study for building a tram line Moldova: “The 2013 budget includes the allocation of funds for the elaboration of a feasibility study for building a tram line in Chişinău.

In the past, the city used to have trams, but unfortunately it gave up this transport mode that is now so necessary. Around 824,000 people of the total 1 million citizens in Chişinău, travel by public transport”, declared Adrian Boldurescu, Director, Public Transport General Department – Chişinău Municipality, during the Forum for Sustainable Mobility and Urban Development” organised by Club Metropolitan and the Association for Metropolitan Mobility (AMM) on 20-21 March in Sibiu

photo: baltic-course.com

Moscow to resume free internet tender for its metro network

The new trams will be supplied within the European Regional Development Fund’s co-funded project on renovating Daugavpils tram infrastructure. 83.11% of the project costs will be covered by the European Regional Development Fund and16.89% – by private funds.

Russia: Metro The Moscow city government plans to announce a new auction to provide free Wi-Fi Internet access in the city metro.

Республика Молдова: Бюджет на 2013 год включает выделение определенной суммы денег на составление техникоэкономического обоснования строительства трамвайной линии в Кишиневе. Россия: Московские

(Romania).

Boldurescu talked about the organisation problems of his department and gave details on the investments made by Chisinau Municipality to optimise the public transport provided to its 1 million citizens.

“Chişinău Municipality has launched important projects using EBRD support; we bought 120 new buses and we will assemble ten new trolleybuses in collaboration with a company from Belarus.

In 2013-2014, we want to include buses in public transport to eliminate minibuses which are a big problem for cities. The streets in Chisinau are very busy and there are 200,000 official cars running every day, but, according to unofficial data, there are about 400,000 cars in traffic every day”, said Adrian Boldurescu.

The authorities plan to initiate the free internet access service in the city metro by the end of 2013.

The previous tender for this service has been cancelled in lack of offers because the big communications companies in Moscow have considered the terms of the tender unprofitable. власти объявят новый тендер на предоставление бесплатного доступа к интернету в московском метрополитене. Румыния: В период 2013-2014 гг. компания «Метрорекс» намеревается запустить процедуры приобретения 63 новых поездов метро.

April 2013 | www.railwaypro.com

16 Policies & Strategies

Parliament rejects EU budget and demands more flexibility and efficiency [ by Pamela Luică ]

The European budget for 2014-2020 has drawn intense controversies and its adoption has failed. The Parliament, the Council and the Commission have to reach an agreement so that the budget will be implemented at the beginning of 2014. If the agreement doesn’t exist, the 2013 figures will be applied.

O

n 13 March 2013, the European Parliament has rejected the EU multiannual budget proposal following the negotiations on 7 and 8 February 2013, EP members insisting on increased flexibility and efficiency within the budget.

The resolution, elaborated by the European People’s Party (EPP), Socialists and Democrats (S&D), the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), the Green Party, European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL), was adopted with 506 votes “for”, 161 “against” and 23 “abstentions”.

The resolution underlines the increasing problem of breaching payment obligations which leads to unpaid bills and the endangering of EU programmes. Last year, the breach of payment obligations led to fund deficit for several EU programmes, such as Erasmus and the Framework Programme for Research and the Social Fund. To that end, the Parliament demands the clarification of the bills unpaid since 2012 before concluding the negotiations for MFF and also a political position from the council to ensure that all the bills due in 2013 should be paid this year to avoid the rolling of deficit in the new financial framework. According to the institution, “legally, EU cannot

have a deficit”.

The resolution offers the Parliament’s negotiators a strong mandate to ensure that the MFF is flexible enough to permit the optimal use of available funds. Also, EP demands the review of the MFF costs to provide the new selected Parliament and Commission with the opportunity of influencing the budgets that they would get from current legislators. Moreover, the Parliament wants a system with internal resources to finance the EU budget and underlines the fact that all EU costs have to pass through the budget.

Therefore, PE “insists upon the availability of initiating real negotiations with the Council based upon all the provisions of the MFF Regulation and of the Interinstitutional Agreement so that, in the future, the union will have a modern, future-oriented, flexible and transparent budget capable to generate economic growth, to create jobs and to eliminate the gap between political commitments and the budgetary means of the European Union”, the institution informs.

EP believes that MFF should ensure the successful implementation of the strategy Europe 2020 and to equip EU with the necessary means that would allow it to recover from the crisis.

Also, the multiannual financial framework for 2014-2020 has to answer to the needs of significant growth of investments dedicated to innovation, research and development, infrastructure and meeting the EU objectives on counteracting climate change.

In February, the European leaders reached an agreement on the budget for the next 7 years according to which the total sum of costs for EU28 (Croatia will become EU member state on 1 July 2013) is of EUR 959,988 Million in commitment credits (1% of the Gross National Income) and of EUR 908,400 Million in payment credits (9.98% in EU’s Gross National Income).

Regarding the funds for the Connecting Europe, they have been significantly reduced with EUR 23 Billion allocated for transport infrastructure projects. With a 1/3 reduction of the initial EUR 32 Billion, transport seems not to be a priority sector in the next programming period.

Little time has remained for adopting the legislative instruments on the implementation of the different MFF programmes and only the prompt conclusion of interinstitutional negotiations between the Parliament, the Council and the Commission could allow the budget to be executed since the beginning of the next MFF, on 1 January 2014. The Parliament negotiates the legal basis for the different EU programmes but for that, the EP and the Council will decide on the basis of joint decisions. If no agreement is concluded until the beginning of 2014, the figures of the 2013 MFF adjusted to the inflation rate will apply.

Парламент отклоняет бюджет ЕС и требует больше гибкости и эффективности

Source: Franc Žepič, Secretary Ministry of Infrastructure and Spatial Planning, Ljubljana

www.railwaypro.com | April 2013

Европейский бюджет на период с 2014 г. по 2020 г. вызвал интенсивные противоречия, а это привело к провалу его принятия. Парламент, Совет и Комиссия должны прийти к согласию для того, чтобы бюджет начал выполняться с 2014 года. Если такого согласия не будет, тогда будут применяться значения уровня 2013 года.

18 Market development

Romania: the new re-industrialisation strategy aims at privatising state companies [ by Pamela Luică ]

At the beginning of April, the Ministry of Economy announced that discussions would be initiated to establish the options of all industrial sections so that the authorities would elaborate Romania’s re-industrialisation strategy by the end of 2013.

A

lthough since 2010 the government elaborate the re-industrialisation strategy, parks can be a variant for Romania’s promorepresentatives have announced we could make a summary with options of tion to foreign investors. “We are working the launch of public debate of the all regions, industrial sectors in Romania. to a text which should promote industrial document on Romania’s re-industrialisation Romania’s Re-industrialisation Strategy parks whose features, facilities which they (strategy which has been executed by the will be completed by the end of this year represent at the level of positioning, of inGroup of Applied Economics-GEA, with and will be assumed by the Government”, frastructure, will be published on the offithe Association for Economic-Social Stud- declared the Minister of Economy, Varujan cial website of the ministry”. ies and Prognosis), this year the authori- Vosganian, in a conference.

Romania has 50 industrial parks, many of ties announce the elaboration of another For this purpose, the directions which them in a “performing situation”, an othstrategy which has the same purpose. In underlie the industrialisation aim at re- ers being under creation, and out of the 40 Romania, the period 2010-2013 was domi- ducing the state influence in the economy clusters, 13 are functional, the rest of them nated in political terms by many changes of and the launch of privatisations. “The main waiting for partners. Nevertheless, out of ministers, including of government, which directions the re-industrialisation are the 23 great industrial fields, 17 are at a high Reindustrializarea României: politici ûifor strategii

determined the authorities to give up dif- the privatisation and the state withdrawal rate in a great competitiveness gap comferent development strategies (for most of from the economy, with certain exceptions pared to the European Union, the foreign ât în 1999. În and perioada 2008-2009 sectorul construcĠii a fost dintre being the ones to stimulate the the sectors) to announce the intentionînsă, of strategic nature, the involvement in theunulinvestments of elaborating and measures peak industrial areas and the integration of activities. profund afectateother de policies reducerile de activitate la nivel global; cu toate acestea,“Romania has an economy which practically aiming at the same objectives: the manufacturing industry in a European can be characterised rather complementary volumului de ofproducĠie din construcĠii subscris unuiwhich trend descendent întregii increase competitiveness, improvement s-acommon strategy, should not be pro- althan competitive compared to the econoof business environment and attraction of tectionist, but which should support indusmies of other EU member states. It is clear ponderea sectorului nefiind afectată în mod dramatic. foreign investors, development of econom- tries. Besides these, we need the promotion that the only way for Romania to reduce decembrie 2009, de peindustry parcursul indicele ic sectors, etc. după deteriorarea dramatică of the Romanian abroad, anului, respec- socio-economic gaps to the average of EU 3 Three years after theîncă launch last detively economic member states is competitiveness increase”, . Mai în construcĠii se plasa la of unthe nivel 172,2% faĠădiplomacy”, de anul declared de bazăthe2005 strategy for stimulating the industry in- minister. declared the Coordinator of industrial poliderea de pe the parcursul anului announced 2009 se observă indicele -7,1% crease, Ministry of Economy The firstprin component of the de strategy is the scădere cies, theîn state secretary in the Ministry of e 2009 infaĠă a anului Înof plus, Eurostat căAdrian Ciocănea. According to Aprilde the aceeaúi initiation oflună consultations with anterior. elaboration an economic map ofafirmă Roma- faptul Economy each ofcutheSpania) 80 differenteste industries, the nia, which at state presentmembre does not have real se him,poate the Re-industrialisation Strategy will (împreună unul ondintre puĠinele în acare topic of Romania’s re-industrialisation. economic geography, and then after the exe- be correlated to the EU industrial policy n reviriment al identified sectorului construcĠii, în decembrie de lunainvolved anterioară.

“We have 80 different industries cution of the2009 strategy,faĠă all ministries and to the programmes for attraction of and we will have discussions with each of will be required to offer the support and con- European tru analizarea gradului de dezindustrializare, se observă evoluĠia procentului din PIBfunds in the budgetary period them, so that in the beginning of June, with tribution for the implementation of policies. 2014-2020. at de industrie, care a scăzut relativ deúi cu authorities, o rată redusă în perioada the members of the commission whichconstant, According to the industrial

9, trend ce se preconizează a se continua úi în viitor.

Industry share in GDP in 2000 - 2014 (2010-2014 estimated)

Румыния: новая стратегия реиндустриализации касается приватизации государственных компаний

%Industry / GDP

Source: Group of Applied Economics – GEA, June 2010

Три года спустя после запуска последней стратегии по активизации промышленного развития, Министерство экономики в апреле объявило о начале консультаций с каждой из 80 различных отраслей промышленности по вопросам реиндустриализации Румынии. До конца 2013 года власти намереваются завершить стратегию реиндустриализации Румынии.

Sursa: CNP, 2009.

www.railwaypro.com | April 2013

a 2.10. Ponderea industriei în produsul intern brut în perioada 2000-2014 (2010-2014 estimat)

Market development

19

Romania: the regionalisation process will increase the absorption of EU funds [ by Pamela Luică ]

Since the beginning of the year, the Government brought to discussion, more and more intensely, the importance of implementing Romania’s regionalisation and decentralisation process.

This measure has led to many “pros” and “cons”, certain representatives of the political class encouraging the application of the project which will determine the increase of funds absorption, the balanced development, the efficient implementation of regional large projects and the improvement of the dialogue between the government and the local authorities. On the other side, other affirmations support the idea of giving up this project which will deepen the bureaucratic activity and could determine the permanent imbalance between the authentic and real decentralisation and the state unit.

I

n April, the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Administration, with the Romanian Academy, organised the public debate related to the regionalisation and decentralisation process, within which the Minister of Regional Development, Liviu Dragnea declared that “this year we have to make the regionalisation. It is true that neither the European Commission nor the EU force us as regards these regions, but, it will be almost impossible for us, after the start of the new programming period 2014-2020, to change the current administrative structure based on which we negotiate this year the Partnership Agreement and, let’s say, at the middle of the next programming period, the administrative system must be changed, because then we have to begin a serious reaccreditation process of all institutions and structures in the EU funds absorption mechanisms”.

Within the new European budgetary year, Prime Minister, Victor Ponta, insisted on mentioning that the regions can be much more efficient in funds absorption than the government, especially since the local authorities managed to attract more Euro-

Source: www.apdrp.ro

pean funds. “The most efficient Romanian institutions in the elaboration of projects, in their execution, in receiving EU funds, have been the local authorities up to this point.

The Regional Operational Programme is the only one in which projects supersede the framework made available, is the only one in which the funds have been used. I believe that the regions with the improved structures around the current regional development agencies can be much more efficient than a central government in the EU funds absorption, (...) the organisation into regions ensuring a higher financial power”, stated Ponta.

According to the project, Romania would have 8 regions, each of them including 4-5 counties: North-East, North-West, Centre, South, South-East, South-West, West and Bucharest-Ilfov.

As regards the transport sector, the regionalisation process will have positive effects on the implementation of infrastructure projects, which can be more easily coordinated, can have a high degree of EU funds absorption and can implicitly be executed mush faster. On the railway section, the reorganisation will facilitate the launch

of infrastructure projects, whereas the main lines will remain under the CFR management, and the railway connections between main lines and the rest of the network will be transferred to the regions. “In terms of administrative reorganisation, at the level of CFR we want to keep the main lines and the project of the high-speed line and everything as regards all railway links between main lines will be transferred to the regions.

The execution of the territorial reorganisation project in Romania will determine the development of the railway transport system, especially under the circumstances under which, if the reform involves the creation of 8 regions, it is beneficial for the railway system because the 8 Regionals of CFR are maintained”, declared Sorin Bota, Head of Transport Department of the Social Democrat Party, within a conference organised by Club Feroviar, whose topic was the infrastructure development (February 2013).

Румыния: регионализация позволит увеличить освоение фондов ЕС С начала правительстве обсуждается более интенсивным, важность осуществления регионализации и децентрализации процесса в Румынии. Эта мера вызвала многочисленные заявления «за» и «против» некоторых представителей политического класса проекта обнадеживающие приложение, которое будет увеличивать поглощение, сбалансированное развитие, эффективную реализацию проектов регионального масштаба и улучшения диалога между правительством и местными органами власти. С другой стороны, другие заявления подчеркивают идею отказа от этого проекта, что приведет к увеличению бюрократической деятельности и может привести к дисбалансу должна быть между подлинной и реальной децентрализации и государственного единства.

April 2013 | www.railwaypro.com

20 Market development

Customs Union, a success for economic integration and the transport system [ by Pamela Luică ]

The establishment of the Customs Union, which has also stimulated the Common Economic Zone, represents the most important step in ensuring the free movement of freight and economic growth in the countries.

T

he main activities of the Customs 2015. Economic integration, including the removal of the market access barriers. “A Union, which includes Russia, Be- integration of transport systems, has the major progress was recorded by Belarus, larus and Kazakhstan, determine potential of bringing multiple economic Kazakhstan and Russia where, with few the implementation of common customs benefits by creating facilities for trade in exceptions, companies have equal rights to regulations, the application of joint cus- the region, for exports worldwide and the access the public acquisitions contracts in toms taxes, the annulment of economic effectiveness of markets (regarding freight the three countries”, says EBRD in the “Inrestrictions and of customs charges in mu- and services). In this context, a joint tariff tegration across borders” report (2012). tual trade. These objectives will inevitably policy is the first step towards integration A great challenge in the regional area lead to less time in traffic for goods, less which is already affecting trade flows. consists in the export activity which repcosts and higher freight volumes.

The regional commercial integration resents a crucial step towards developing As part of the policy, the application of generates many benefits and challenges. this activity worldwide. Therefore, the single tariffs for railway freight transport in First of all, commercial barriers (related construction of the export capacity, which the Economic Zone became effective on 1 to tariffs) should increase trade and stimu- can take advantage of reduced (or “zero”) January 2013 and under the intergovern- late the choices of consumers. Within the tariff, helps gain competitive export advanmental agreement between Kazakhstan, Union, the set up of the “trade area” will tages compared to the other countries. For Belarus and Russia, on the regulation of eliminate administrative barriers, customs the three countries, the main challenge is railway transport access, the three signato- controls in internal borders and will op- to achieve these objectives. ry countries will apply the single tariff. The timise regional cross-border infrastrucWithin the Union, the application of taapplication of the policy has determined ture which plays an important role in the riffs and the implementation of joint measthe creation of a single system for charging commercial activity. Another advantage of ure on the regulation of trade between railway freight transport and the objective joint policies is felt by manufacturers, be- Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan have inhas been reached by reducing export pric- cause the markets will be larger, an impor- creased transport volumes to 62.8 million es and by increasing tariffs for imports and tant element in facilitating innovation, set- tonnes of freight. “We’ve been working in domestic traffic. The highest reduction of ting fix costs to be divided on large groups the Common Economic Zone for a year tariffs for exports was adopted for refined of customers. At the same time, consu- and the international railway transport has oil (-58%), crude oil (-37%), coal (-11%) mers benefit from increased competitive- increased by 9% in this period compared to 13 and grains (-10%).

Moreover, single taness in the market.

These effects crucially the same period last year”, declared Valery Assessment of amounts of import customs duties riffs for infrastructure access within the depend not only on the establishment of Reshetnikov, Vice President of RZD, at Union could be introduced since January the single customs union, but also on the the end of 2012. in the Customs Union As part of the joint actions, the parties Assessment of amounts of import customs duties in the Customs Union have reduced the number of customs operations for reducing logistics costs and the travel time by 1-2 days within the member states of the Customs Union.

Currently, the largest share of the goods shipped from China to Europe is shipped through the eastern Russian ports which encouraged the development of industry in this area. The initiatives that will increase the attractiveness of Eurasia’s transit potential include the new UTCL logistics company that will encourage railway companies to accelerate the introduction of a single approach on the transport of freight , of legal regulation integrated Population – 168,9 million people, Length of borders – 67,1 thousand km.

Area – 20 million square km, Retail volume – 624,37 billion US dollars Source: The Federal Customs Service of Russia

www.railwaypro.com | April 2013

21

Market development

Simplifications in transfer of goods: • Table 4.1 Transfer from the border to recipient.

• National transit procedures of each member‐state of the Customs Union Changes do not applyin forimports carriers, including customs carriers • 2. The amount of customs carriers guarantees reduced from 500 thouKazakhstan sand euro variable: to 200 thousand Euro.

Dependent World CU EU China CU • change in3.imports Railway carriers are free from guaranteeing transit CIS of goods.World

tion for the implementation of this project and Kazakhstan has to have a logistics operator by the end of 2013”, said Akhmetov during a meeting with KTZ representativesBelarus (since January 2013).

It is important to say that Kazlogistics, EU China World CU the Kazakh Association ofCISTransport and set up in 2012. associa- 0.0026 0.0024 0.0076* -0.0056 -0.0141** 0.0009 -0.0133*** 0.0077 Logistics, -0.0233***was -0.0078 -0.0015 The-0.0114*** Change in tariffs systems, the harmonization of standards country could also participate with other tion is expected to transform Kazakhstan (0.0028) of(0.0039) (0.0136) (0.0032) (0.0132) logistics (0.013)and business (0.0032) (0.0084) on services and the application a single (0.0049) terminals(0.0071) that will be built: the Ministry(0.006) of into(0.0049) a commercial, integrated system. When the Transport supports the set up of 50 logis- hub by 2016. Moreover, the association Change in information bilateral 0.0068 -0.0556 -0.1514*** 0.0101 0.1102*** Customs tics centres (including 24 centres for transwill -0.0033 help form0.0771 a balance-0.0028 between the in- 0.0243 imports, Union 2006-08will become fully operaCHAPTER 4 tional and the Common Economic Zone (0.0459) port and(0.0447) logistics).(0.0579) The development (0.0423) of terests of the (0.0491) different transport modes (0.023) Regional trade and Eurasian economic union (0.0372) (0.036) integration (0.0548) will be created, new opportunities for the the transport and logistics sector is a prior- and the optimisation of the quality of lo- 69 Change in bilateral development of transport services will be -0.3146*** ity for the authorities who are aware of-0.3940*** the gistics and multimodal transport services. -0.1474*** -0.2622*** -0.4621*** -0.3133** -0.3118*** -0.0424 -0.3606*** imports, 2008-09 identified.

“In this context, the railway importance of Belarus in attracting freight According to KTZ, the decision of setting companies in Russia, Kazakhstan and (0.0675) traffic on(0.0877) Western Europe-Asia axis. (0.0594) up the association (0.0507) (0.1275) (0.0688) (0.148) is another (0.0916) important (0.053) Belarus are working on the set up of the step in the application of the logistics basCIS countries followed by goods from within the new Customs Bilateral imports, Chart 4.3a -0.1267*** -0.3110*** -0.0452**es.

-0.1012*** -0.1469** -0.033 Union,-0.1569*** although some trade volumes (for example, Kazakhstan’s Unified Transport and Logistics Com- -0.1495*** Russia and Kazakhstan want The Customs Union within the joint -0.0567*** Distribution of changes in tariffs on Customs 2009, log imports from the European Union) continued shrinking. In Union's introduction – Kazakhstan pany (UTLC), project supported by the national logistics operators economic area will accentuate coopera2011 the recovery was maintained and imports from within the (0.0217) (0.0284)Customs(0.0429) (0.0753) (0.0191) (0.0599) (0.0477) Union surpassed the level of 2008 in nominal terms (by tion(0.0208) presidents of the three countries”, declared with foreign partners.

Consequently, (0.0196) 12 per cent). The trends were similar for exports.

Vladimir Yakunin, RZD President, during Although the three countries of the freight exports and imports will grow, the Change in world the magnitude of trade recovery effects, trade -0.1020*** -0.0330 0.0479 To gauge -0.0153 -0.2297** -0.0195 -0.1110** -0.0931* -0.0581 -0.0651*** 0.0143 imports, 2006-08 the International Rail Freight Conference, Customs Union will form a joint logistics commercial activity with-0.0145 foreign countries creation within and outside the Customs Union and trade diversion effects (if any), the highly disaggregated structure of CHAPTERof 4 inheld in Prague (March (0.0198) 2013). As(0.0509) part of (0.0662) operator, the authorities announced and be consolidated, the(0.1061) allocation (0.0752) (0.1010) (0.0163) (0.0536) will (0.0483) (0.0964) (0.0128) (0.0479) exports and imports of each country can be examined. At the Regional trade integration and Eurasian economic union the project, it is possible to increase the continue to ofsupport theSystem need(HS)for logistics six-digit level the Harmonized classification, goods vestments will be stimulated, as well as the 69 Change in world are divided into over 5,000 separate lines (such as bottles for number of participants-0.3218*** only if those operation within the-0.1135 railway companies.

In implementation of innovating projects, -0.1473*** 0.0690 in- -0.2468*** 0.1664 -0.3655*** -0.1654** -0.1143 0.1658 -0.2625*** sterilisation or washing machines, for instance).

Changes in0.0394 trade imports,acknowledge 2008-09 terested the principles of thisflows context, RZDtrading believes antheimporbetween various partnersthat following introduction while the development of economic and the Customs Union can be analysed by(0.0263) comparing the sectors (0.0294) (0.1116) (0.1837) (0.0759) commercial (0.0819) targets (0.1974)will set (0.1411) (0.0174) (0.0542) the transport and logistics system(0.0620) in the (0.0907) tantofwhere step in the development of transport the foundation tariffs were revised and those where they were not.

Chart 4.3b Common Economic Zone and agree with is to Chart create a logistics operator that will of mutual cooperation and assistance.

4.3 shows the distribution of tariff changes for different World imports, Distribution of changes in tariffs on Customs CIS countries followed bymentioned, goods the new Customs -0.0500*** -0.0446*** countries.

As previously inwithin the case of Kazakhstan the2009, objectives of setting-0.1111*** up the UTLC. continue to develop thefromnetwork of sales Chart 4.3a Union's introduction – Belarus log Distribution of changes in tariffs on Union, although some volumes (for example, Kazakhstan’s more than 50 per centtrade of tariff lines for non-CIS countries have Distribution of changes in tariffs on Customs The operator is to be created based on andimports services inEuropean the transcontinental chain from the Union)upwards continued shrinking.

In Union's introduction – Kazakhstan been revised, and predominantly (while CIS countries Customs Union’s introduction – Kazakhstan (0.0104) (0.006) 2011 thethe recovery was duty-free maintained and imports from withinby the have retained alogistics largely regime based on various parity and set up costs (0.0129) reach USD 2 Bil- through operator owned Customs Union surpassed the level of 2008 in tariff nominal terms (by bilateral treaties).

In Belarus and Russia fewer lines lion.

Each state will have to come0.3902** up with 0.9338*** the 12 company.

0.7099*** 0.4791*** 0.4085** 0.8852*** 1.3077*** 0.3447 0.6569*** 0.5253*** Constant per 1.5044*** cent).

The trends were fortariff exports. underwent changes and2.4767*** moresimilar six-digit lines saw reductions Toestablishment gauge the magnitude of effects, rather than increases (in non-weighted terms).

This istrade also containers and freight terminals; also, if “The oftrade therecovery largest logistics (0.1159) (0.1978) (0.2460)creation (0.3662) (0.6562) (0.0891) (0.1605) (0.1736) (0.4675) (0.3884) (0.0581) (0.1731) within and outside the Customs Union and trade consistent with the change in overall effective import tariff rates, RZD will come to a final result, it could operator within RZD will ensure lessstructure operadiversion any), highly disaggregated of calculatedeffects as the(if ratio ofthe all import duties collected to all imports exports and imports of each companies country can beratio examined.

Atfrom the an Number of incosts a given year.

For example, in Russia this declined ensure a stake in the shares of its container tion for national by deliver1,323 486 542 averagelevel 295 thecent 156 System 1,578 640 747 143 187 2,917 508 Harmonized (HS) goods of 9.1ofper in 2006-09 to 8.6 perclassification, cent in 2010-11. observations operator, while Belarus and Kazakhstan ing six-digit access toshows efficient transport solutions”, are divided over 5,000 separate lines (such as bottles for Table 4.1into the results of a statistical analysis, sterilisation or washing machines, for instance).

ChangesUnion, in0.1795 trade willR-squared pay for the participation with fixed 0.2995 declared RZD President Vladimir undertaken separately for each member of0.1605 the Yakunin.

Customs 0.1760 0.1821 0.2221 0.3393 0.257 0.1138 0.1374 0.109 0.0726 flows between variouschanges trading partners theproduct introduction that seeks to explain in importsfollowing of a given goods or cash, if necessary. The platform For Kazakhstan Railways, the set up of a of theaCustoms can be analysed comparing the sectors from particularUnion region (meaning otherby Union members, China, Chart Distribution 4.3c of changes in tariffs on of industry tariffs revised and where wereor not. of Number the logistics operator 133 could also99 be a national logistics operator is anthey important CIS countries outside the Union, the European Union the 109 Distribution in tariffs on Customs 93 where 77were 55those 147 119 of changes55 66 162 109 Chart 4.3b Union's introduction – Russia fixed effects Chart 4.3 shows the distribution of tariff changes for different Customs Union’s introduction – Russia world as a whole) in terms of past variations in import levels as Russian Railways subsidiary, OJSC RZD process in the development of the sector, Distribution of changes in tariffs on Customs countries.

As previously mentioned, in the case of Kazakhstan well as changes in effective tariff rates since the start of the Union's introduction – Belarus Logistics, a company which doesn’t own especially since the country wants to more thanUnion.

50 per cent of tariff lines for non-CIS countries have Customs The regression analysis confirms thathold changes Source: Authors’ calculations. been revised, and predominantly upwards (while CIS countries in volumes of imports between 2009 and 2010 were largely yet fixed goods and which only deals with a strategic position in the logistics chain Note: The table shows the results of ordinary least squares regressions of achanges in imports 2009-10 (in alogarithmic terms). Robust standard errors in parentheses. have largely duty-free regime onavarious drivenretained by trade recovery effects.

For theinbased world as whole, 10 the organisation services. the axis The bilateral Belarus and**; Russia fewer per cent decline inInimports during 2009 associated with an with ***. A negative coefficient for the change in tariffs Values significant atof thelogistics 10 per cent level are marked withon *; at the 5treaties). per Europe-Asia. cent level with at was theresponsible 1tariff perlines cent level underwent changes more six-digit tariff linesyear sawin reductions approximately 3 per and cent increase the following allthe three According to the pressinin Kazakhstan, authorities work on the elaboration of means that imports decreased response to a higher tariff or rather that tariff increased in response to individual a lower tariff. thanThe increases (in non-weighted terms).

This is import also countries. same was true for trade with partners.

KTZ could contribute with a stake from project soinwith that Kazakhstan could a consistent theduring change in overall effective import tariff rates, Collapses trade crises are indeed known tohave overshoot calculated as the ratioof ofoperator all importtending duties all imports by far thelogistics contraction demand, to herald subsequent the shares of Kaztransservis and Keden- national bycollected the atoend of in a given year. For example,as intrade Russia ratio declined from an brisk recovery.

Moreover, in this intermediate goods transservis operators (where TransCon- the average year.

For 2013, Prime Minister Serik of 9.1 per cent in 2006-09 to 8.6 per cent in 2010-11. tends to be affected more than trade in final goods, some trade Source: “Integration across borders” (2012), EBRD Table 4.1has shows the resultsmuch of a statistical analysis, partnerships may be affected more set than others. tainer already owns shares). Belarus will Akhmetov requested the up of the undertaken separately formarket each member of the Customsthe Union, Imports also exhibited saturation properties: ASSESSMENT have the terminal in Brest and 3,000 wagoperator that will be part of KTZ. “Soon, that seeks to explain changes imports of of a given product Chart 4.2 higher the pre-Customs Unionin import level a given type of from a have particular region (meaning other Union members, China, product from a to given partner, the slower the growth in imports.

4.3c ons and if it selects the logistics sector, the we will draft the necessary legislaItChart is too soon to judge to what extent mult % of affected tariff lines 60

50

40

30

20

10 0

-20 and below

-20 to -10

-10 to -5

-5 to 0

0

0 to 5

5 to 10

10 to 20

20 and above

Source: National authorities, International Trade Centre, Customs Union Commission and authors’ calculations.

Note: Distribution densities shown relate to non-trade-weighted changes in tariffs before and after the Customs Union came into force at the six-digit level of disaggregation, excluding transitional provisions and lines with no recorded imports. For intervals reported on the horizontal axis the lower bound is included and the upper bound is excluded. Both bounds are excluded in the 0 to 5 category.

14

% of affected tariff lines 80

% of affected tariff lines 70 60 60

50 50

40 40

30 30 20

15

10 20 0 10

-20 and below

-20 to -10

-10 to -5

-5 to 0

0

0 to 5

5 to 10

10 to 20

20 and above

0

Source: National authorities, International Trade Centre, Customs Union Commission and below -20 to -10 -10 to -5 -5 to 0 0 0 to 5 5 to 10 10 to 20 20 and above and-20authors’ calculations.

Note: Distribution densities shown relate to non-trade-weighted changes in tariffs before and after the Source: National authorities, International Trade Centre, Customs Union Commission Customs Union came into force at the six-digit level of disaggregation, excluding transitional provisions and authors’ calculations. and lines with no recorded imports. For intervals reported on the horizontal axis the lower bound is Note: Distribution densities shown relate to non-trade-weighted changes in tariffs before and after the included and the upper bound is excluded. Both bounds are excluded in the 0 to 5 category.

Customs Union came into force at the six-digit level of disaggregation, excluding transitional provisions and lines with no recorded imports. For intervals reported on the horizontal axis the lower bound is included and thetariff upper lines bound is excluded. Both bounds are excluded in the 0 to 5 category. % of affected

14

16

80

% of affected tariff lines

17

18

15

CISThe countries outside the Union, European Union or the Customs Union import volumes by trade partner first row of coefficients in the Table 4.1 reveals that

world as ainwhole) terms of not pasthave variations in import levels changes tariffs in per se did a significant impact onas well as changes in effective since the start of the the aggregate (world) importtariff flowsrates in Kazakhstan, at least in 16 Customs The regression confirms changes the short Union. term. However, they did analysis have some effect that on trade in volumes of imports between 2009 and 2010 were largely driven by trade recovery effects. For the world as a whole, a 10 per cent decline imports during 2009 was associated with an Trade flows are expressedin in US dollar terms.

Calculated using data 3 from the Central of Russia the and the Russian Treasury taking approximately per cent Bank increase following year ininto allaccount threeall import duties and fees collected in Russia, including those subsequently transferred to the Treasuries countries. same was true for trade with individual partners.17 of Belarus and The Kazakhstan.

See Isakova and Plekhanov (2012) for further discussion.

Analysis excludes product lines for which Collapses in trade during crises are indeed known to overshoot exclusions from the common external tariff apply or trade volumes are less than US$ 1 million. byResults far the ofreported) demand, tending to herald a subsequent for thecontraction rest of the world (not are similar. brisk recovery.18 Moreover, as trade in intermediate goods tends to be affected more than trade in final goods, some trade partnerships may be affected much more than others.

Imports also exhibited market saturation properties: the higher the pre-Customs Union import level of a given type of product from a given partner, the slower the growth in imports.

The first row of coefficients in Table 4.1 reveals that changes in tariffs per se did not have a significant impact on the aggregate (world) import flows in Kazakhstan, at least in the short term. However, they did have some effect on trade

Customs Union import volumes

US$ billion 400

14

15

350

16

300

17

250 200 150 100 50 0

Trade flows are expressed in US dollar terms.

Calculated using data from the Central Bank of Russia and the Russian Treasury taking into account all import duties and fees collected in Russia, including those subsequently transferred to the Treasuries of Belarus and Kazakhstan.

16 See Isakova and Plekhanov (2012) for further discussion. Analysis excludes product lines for which exclusions from the common external tariff apply or trade volumes are less than US$ 1 million.

17 Results for the rest of the world (not reported) are similar.

14

2006

2007

2008

15

2009

Q Customs Union Q EU-27 Q China Q CIS (excl. CU) Q Others

Source: “Integration across borders” (2012), EBRD Source: Kazstat, Rosstat, Belstat and Customs Union Commission.

Note: CU is the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia, EU-27 are the 27 current members of the European Union.

2010

2011

70 80 60 70 50 60 40 50 30 40 20 30 10 20 0 10 -20 and below 0

-20 to -10

-10 to -5

-5 to 0

0

0 to 5

5 to 10

10 to 20

20 and above

Source: National authorities, International Trade Centre, Customs Union Commission and below -20 to -10 -10 to -5 -5 to 0 0 0 to 5 5 to 10 10 to 20 20 and above and-20authors’ calculations.

Note: Distribution densities shown relate toTrade non-trade-weighted in tariffs before and after the Source: National authorities, International Centre, Customschanges Union Commission Customs Union came into force at the six-digit level of disaggregation, excluding transitional provisions and authors’ calculations. and lines with no recorded For intervals reported on thechanges horizontal the lowerand bound is the Note: Distribution densitiesimports. shown relate to non-trade-weighted in axis tariffs before after included Union and the upper bound Both bounds are excluded in the 0 to transitional 5 category. provisions Customs came into forceisatexcluded. the six-digit level of disaggregation, excluding and lines with no recorded imports. For intervals reported on the horizontal axis the lower bound is Distribution changes Customs included and the upperof bound is excluded. in Bothtariffs bounds areon excluded in the 0 to 5 category.

Union's introduction – Russia союз - успех Таможенный integration within the Eurasian Economic в сфере экономической и materialise, and whether the numerous c транспортной интеграции can, respectively, be overcome and minim Основные виды деятельности useful to see what can be learned from th % of affected tariff lines 80

70

60

18 50

See Baldwin (2009).

40

30

Таможенного союза, в который входят Россия, Белоруссия и Казахстан, обусловливают введение совместных MARKET ACCESS AND TRADE CRE таможенных нормативов, применение Inединых 2010-11 intra-regional trade between таможенных пошлин, отмены экономических ограниченийby и over two-thirds, and Russia increased таможенных пошлинitвоcontinued взаимной months of 2012 to expand a торговле. cent year-on-year.

Was this impressive gr Данные цели неизбежно приведут к сокращению времени пребывания грузов deeper economic integration or merely in Baldwin (2009). вSeeпути и транспортных расходов, а также к the post-crisisувеличению recoveryперевозимых of trade? существенному объемов грузов.

In the wake of the 2008-09 crisis, ove 20

10 0

-20 and below

-20 to -10

-10 to -5

-5 to 0

0

0 to 5

5 to 10

10 to 20

20 and above

Source: National authorities, International Trade Centre, Customs Union Commission and authors’ calculations.

Note: Distribution densities shown relate to non-trade-weighted changes in tariffs before and after the Customs Union came into force at the six-digit level of disaggregation, excluding transitional provisions and lines with no recorded imports. For intervals reported on the horizontal axis the lower bound is included and the upper bound is excluded. Both bounds are excluded in the 0 to 5 category.

18

Eurasian bloc contracted by 35 per cent ( 2013 | www.railwaypro.com imports from April within it similarly fell by over

22 lex

Challenges in the governance of railway infrastructure [ by Elena Ilie ]

The efficiency challenge of infrastructure managers is caused by the fact that the current governance does not provide sufficient incentives and means for infrastructure managers (IM) to respond to the needs of the transport services market and to contribute to the optimisation of the performance of the sector taken as a whole. While the recast of the First Railway package has introduced the obligation to infrastructure managers to consult users and foresees use of performance schemes and targets, these do not allow for a structured and continuous dialogue with users.

T

he Single European Railway Area aims to create an internal railway market where European railway undertakings can provide services without unnecessary technical and administrative barriers. Despite existing legislation, efficiency and competition problems still exist. Strengthening the single market by optimising the governance of infrastructure management, in particular by ensuring that the infrastructure manager (a) performs a consistent set of functions coordinates with its EU counterparts on cross-border issues and is responsive to the needs of rail undertakings (“efficiency challenge”); and (b) allows for effective non-discriminatory access to the infrastructure (“equal access challenge”), is a way in which to assist such sustainable growth.

In addition, the distribution of different infrastructure management function among different market players can lead to inconsistencies in the management of infrastructure and increase coordination costs.

Finally, an important condition for completing the Single European Rail Area is to

Photo: Club Feroviar

www.railwaypro.com | April 2013

improve the functioning of cross-border cooperation of infrastructure managers.

Conflicts of interest in vertically integrated railway holdings naturally lead to protectionist practices of historical incumbents which impair competition in rail services for all other applicants and thus result in “equal access challenge”. Experience over the last decade has demonstrated that the implementation of current separation requirements did not completely prevent the conflicts of interest and discriminatory practices in respect of access to rail infrastructure and related services. In addition, the existing legal framework has proven to be insufficient to allow detection of and prevent cross-subsidisation from infrastructure managers to incumbents. Even reinforced regulators’ powers under the recast cannot prevent this, as the risk is inherent in the existing structure.

The problems described above and the measures to be proposed to address them will affect a large number of players in the rail market including national authorities, infrastructure managers, railway undertak-

ings and indirectly also passengers and users of rail freight services.

Therefore, a Directive has been proposed through which the Commission hopes to regulate the governance of railway infrastructure. The most important objective refers to the continuous consolidation of the governance of railway infrastructure thus stimulating the competitiveness of the railway sector compared to other transport modes and contributing to the development of the Single European Railway Area.

A reference scenario is also proposed in order to improve cross-border cooperation between infrastructure managers, a cooperation that seems not to be enough. Therefore, the reformation or the regulation of railway freight transport corridors could be proposed. Currently, the proposals which compose the Fourth Railway Package are debated by the Commission and by the European Parliament.

Вызовы в сфере управления железнодорожной инфраструктурой Вызов в плане эффективности работы администраторов инфраструктуры связан с тем, что в настоящее время способ управления не обеспечивает достаточно стимулов и инструментов для соответствия потребностям рынка транспортных услуг и для оптимизации качественных показателей железнодорожного сектора в целом. Несмотря на то, что при реформировании первого железнодорожного пакета введено положение по поводу обязательства администраторов проконсультироваться с пользователями, а это предполагает использование качественных систем для достижения целей, данная система не позволяет вести структурированный и непрерывный диалог с пользователями.

23

April 2013 | www.railwaypro.com

24 lex

Fourth Railway Package proposes a single vehicle authorization for placing on the market [ by Elena Ilie ]

The Commission has proposed a series of amendments of the Directive on Interoperability; therefore new provisions will be introduced consisting in new definitions, the concept of vehicle authorization for placing on the market, as well as new provisions on registers. The Commission seeks to clarify the existing provisions regarding the scope of the directive, the application of TSIs to existing systems, derogations from TSIs, deficiencies of TSIs and the applicability of national regulations.

F

uture revisions of TSIs should also simplify the regulatory environment, ensuring the relevance, effectiveness and proportionality of railway legislation. For example, greater use of voluntary European standards will be considered.

The Commission proposes clarifications regarding the application of TSIs when existing subsystems are renewed or upgraded. In the same package, the Commission emphasizes the importance of the role and correct functioning of notified bodies by aligning the interoperability legislation with the new legislative framework for the marketing of products.

The fourth package also addresses the difficulties experienced in the current vehicle authorisation process, by introducing the notion of a single vehicle authorisation for placing on the market which will be valid throughout the European Union. The proposals are currently debated by the Commission and the Parliament.

The work carried out by the Commission departments and the European Railway Agency in 2010 allowed all players to come to an agreed understanding of the provisions of this Directive on the placing into service of rail vehicles. This led to the Commission Recommendation of 29 March 2011 on the authorisation for the placing in service of structural subsystems and vehicles under Directive 2008/57/EC. However, in the course of that work new issues have emerged, such as difficulties with the implementation of Common Safety Methods on risk assessment and the mapping of safety hazards in TSIs in order to allow for the systematic use of TSIs rather than national rules. For this reason, in September 2011 the Commission departments set up a Task Force bringing together all those concerned in order to analyse the problems encountered by the stakeholders during the authorisation process and identify areas for further im-

provement.

The Task Force identified three types of problems: the European rail legislation is not always properly applied, the European rail legislation is not always correctly understood and the EU rail legislation can be improved. Therefore, in addition to closer monitoring of the implementation of EU rail legislation and wider dissemination and training activities, a revision of the EU process for the placing in service of vehicles is needed. This issue is addressed by the Commission in its fourth package proposals. Other obstacles are the lack of transparency of national legal frameworks for vehicle authorisation and the lack of public availability of national rules. The problem of preserving national rules that are redundant or are in conflict with the TSIs should also be approached more carefully by member states, first, and then

by ERA.

Улучшенная инфраструктура и техническая совместимость

Photo: Club Feroviar

www.railwaypro.com | April 2013

Комиссия предложила внесение ряда поправок в Директиву Технической совместимости, и таким образом будут внедрены новые распоряжения, новые определения, концепцию выдачи разрешения на допуск транспортного средства на рынок, а также новые распоряжения по поводу ведения реестров. Комиссия нацелена на уточнение существующих положений закона по вопросу о сфере применения директивы, о применении Технических спецификаций интероперабельности (ТСИ) в существующих системах, об исключениях в применении ТСИ, о недостатках ТСИ и о применении национальных нормативов.

www.railforce.ro

Rail passenger transport Rail freight transport Shunting services Contact: 2 Oltului St. 500283 - Brasov Romania Tel: +40 268 310 697 Fax: +40 268 310 859

SPIACT BRAĹžOV

The Fourth Railway Package with its new law provisions is currently one of the most important aspects of the railway sector. The liberalisation of the domestic rail passenger transport market is an important element as well. In his interview for Railway Pro, Cesare Brand, Secretary General of the International Rail Transport Committee (CIT) talks about these provisions, but also about the insufficient infrastructure capacity, the changing character of infrastructure access charges and the lack of coherence in the legilsative framework. www.railwaypro.com | April 2013

Photo: Club Feroviar

26 leaders

leaders

27

Rail freight corridors must allow high-quality train paths Interview with Mr. Cesare Brand, Secretary General of the International Rail Transport Committee (CIT) [ by Elena Ilie ]

RailwayPRO: How would you describe the European rail passenger transport market three years after liberalization?

Cesare Brand: The market for international passenger transport services was opened in 2010. The impact of liberalisation to date is not overwhelming. The majority of international passenger transport services are still handled on the basis of cooperation agreements.

RailwayPRO: In the opinion of CIT, opening EU domestic transport markets to competition is a good opportunity?

Could state-owned operators be affected in terms of competition with large European players?

Cesare Brand: The main task of the CIT is the implementation of European and COTIF international transport law for its membership of some 200 railway undertaking and shipping companies. We create the necessary legal instruments making cross-border traffic more efficient and easier. Political lobbying is not in the aim of the CIT. This task is performed in an excellent way by the CER in Brussels.

The following answers represent my personal opinion and not the opinion of our members.

To your question: In those countries where the market was opened for national passenger transport services, an improvement in the quality of the services can be observed. In some cases travellers have also been able to benefit from lower fares.

To what extent competitive services can be provided on a sustainable profit basis remains to be seen. The goal is to offer a better quality with competitive prices.

The railway offer and the role of the stateowned operators are different for every country. There are countries with an attractive capillary system offer and countries where the service is poor. The right medicine can be different, but fair conditions established on the basis of reciprocity, must be guaranteed.

RailwayPRO: What does CIT believe about the mandatory tendering procedure of public services obligations in the railway sector?

Cesare Brand: The CIT is concerned primarily with international, crossborder services that are provided by the railway undertakings themselves, in other words with no compensation from public authorities. The political discussion on compulsory tendering is being conducted as part of the 4th Railway Package. In this respect, it is necessary to judge between establishing fair competition between the companies involved and giving public authorities the freedom to provide passenger transport services that will meet the basic requirements.

RailwayPRO: Do you think that the institutional separation (between infrastructure managers and operators) is viable for consolidating the infrastructure managers’ independence of any train operator? Strong EU operators say that, on the contrary, the only viable measure is to maintain a holding structure.

Cesare Brand: The CIT represents the interests of the railway undertakings.

The decisive factor for them in terms of competition is non-discriminatory access to foreign networks. Looking at the European rail freight market, it can be seen that various solutions designed to provide non-discriminatory access already exist and that they work. This can be achieved by institutional separation, but also by an effective regulator. What is vital for rail’s success is a modern interoperable and safe railway infrastructure that meets the needs of the market, the availability of long-term financing and train-path prices that enable the railway undertakings to be competitive with road transport. In my view, the discussion on the institutional separation of transport services and infrastructure should be conducted in a more relaxed and objective manner.

“

The main task of the CIT is the implementation of European and COTIF international transport law Cesare Brand RailwayPRO: What do you think would be the reason why there are not enough new entrants in the market that could bring private capital to the sector?

Cesare Brand: Despite the liberalisation of freight transport and international passenger transport, few private investors seem interested in rail. In its implementation report on the opening of the market for international rail passenger transport published at the beginning of the year, the Commission has rightly identified many reasons (such as administrative and operational barriers and the economic crisis). As I see it, the reasons are not only to be found there. Unlike energy, telecommunications or postal services, rail business in the European countries is only able to cover on average up to 50% of the overall costs (infrastructure and transport services) and is dependent on state subsidies (for infrastructure and public service obligations). This is due among things to the capillary nature of the network and the lack of separation of passenger and freight infrastructure (mixed traffic results in higher infrastructure costs than is the case with dedicated freight or passenger routes, as in the USA or Japan). The separation model chosen in Europe is also the reason why the actual price charged for the train-path is an important cost factor exposed to strong financial policy influence either directly (where the train-path price is officially > April 2013 | www.railwaypro.com

28 leaders

Photo: Club Feroviar

Cesare Brand at Club Feroviar Conference - Sibiu March, 2013

> determined) or indirectly (where the train-path price is dependent on the amount of state subsidy provided for the infrastructure). For a private investor, this means that he is unable to control one of the key cost drivers himself , but is ultimately either directly or indirectly at the mercy of government policy. This is countered by the need to make very high investments and the necessity of having a long-term financial plan, which is hardly possible today, given the very different and volatile train-path prices.

RailwayPRO: What would be the steps to take in order to reach the (longexpected) coherence in the Union’s legislative framework?

Cesare Brand: A successful and well designed regulatory framework, in addition to a certain degree of permanence, requires a clear concept with regard to the object of regulation and a “technically” sound and consistent conversion into legal standards.

The regulatory concept proposed by the Commission aims to create a liberalised rail market for both international and national passenger and freight services. The current political discussions on “through ticketing” as a key interface to the customer, however, are an example of the difficulties associated with reconciling a competitive concept with the customer’s needs. As soon as decisions are taken on the interface to the customer (timetable and price information, sales), any thought of competition between railway companies tends to recede into the background, with preference given to legally enforced collaboration (e.g. open exchange of information and mutual access to sales channels).

The railway companies will ultimately have to bear the drawbacks of the inherent contradictions between competition and compulsory collaboration themselves, including the lack of coherence in the regulatory framework that comes with it. In the interests of the railway industry, it is to be hoped that in the libwww.railwaypro.com | April 2013

eralized areas it is the market and not the planned economy governed by the authorities that ultimately prevails.

RailwayPRO: As regards railway freight transport, how do you see the current profile market? Freight transport has been opened for years, but it seems it hasn’t recorded notable progress either and a series of East-European operators has had repeated attempts of selling their companies in order to revive this market segment.

Cesare Brand: The transport performance on the European rail freight market today is slightly higher than in 2000. Following the losses incurred prior to liberalisation, rail freight‘s average market share in Europe has stabilised.

It is nevertheless true that the development in terms of the individual rail operators and states differs quite considerably.

The main reasons for this difference are the economy, the willingness of the individual states to invest in the infrastructure, to create favourable regulatory conditions for rail and corporate decisions.

RailwayPRO: What do you think about the establishment of the ten European freight-dedicated corridors? What about the idea of setting up a one-stop shop for allocating routes? Has this measure also proven to be controversial?

Cesare Brand: These corridors must allow high-quality train paths to be offered to freight trains to improve the quality of freight services (in terms of punctuality and transit times) by comparison with the current situation. In addition, these corridors must allow further capacity to be made available for freight by rail.

RailwayPRO: The gradual globalisation of the transport market generates new challenges for railways. The major challenge consists in providing land goods transport between Europe and Asia. What is the role of the CIM/SMGS consignment note in facilitating traffic?

Cesare Brand: The Introduction of the common consignment note CIM/SMGS is part of the process of harmonising Euro-Asian rail transport law and bring significant simplification of through freight traffic by rail from Europe to Russia and Asia especially in respect of: elimination of extra costs for activities that provide no extra value (up to €40); elimination of a source of errors by the elimination of the transcription of consignment notes CIM and SMGS on the point of reconsignment; the common consignment note CIM/SMGS is recognised as a customs transit document by the respective authorities and this saves time and costs (as mentioned here); shorter transit times by reducing the time spent at legal CIM/ SMGS interfaces (40 min per wagon) and overall higher level of legal certainty for all participants in the CIM SMGS freight traffic.

RailwayPRO: In the end, can you give us details about the news with the progress of the CIM/SMGS legal interoperability?

Cesare Brand: Railway undertakings and railway organisations like CIT have been involved for some time in implementing the initiative to make use of a harmonised contractual basis for the promotion of Euro-Asian rail transport.

A political declaration of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) has largely supported this CIT initiative and was signed on 26th February 2013 in Geneva at the meeting of the Inland Transport Committee by the thirtyseven representatives of the participating states. Point 3 of this declaration makes an explicit reference to the CIT initiative for drafting General Conditions for EuroAsian rail transport (GTC EurAsia).

Железнодорожные грузовые коридоры должны позволить высокие путь качество В настоящее время IV Железнодорожный пакет со своими новыми законодательными положениями является одним из наиболее важных аспектов железнодорожного сектора. Также, либерализация внутреннего рынка железнодорожных пассажирских перевозок - важная составная часть этого направления. Об этих положениях, но и о недостаточной пропускной способности инфраструктуры, об изменчивом характере налогов на доступ к инфраструктуре и об отсутствии последовательности в законодательных рамках рассказал нам в своем интервью журналу Railway PRO Генеральный секретарь Международного комитета железнодорожного транспорта (МКЖТ) Цезаре Бранд.

The Romanian Railway Catalogue provides comprehensive data on companies, organisations and institutions in the railway arena. It is the only railway product and service information source distributed to local purchasers interested in identifying prestigious suppliers.

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■ Wider Black Sea Area Railway Map, country profiles and key statistics ■ Romanian railway market briefs ■ Latest editions of Railway PRO magazine

Showcase in the Railway Catalogue 2013-2014 ■ Selective and free distribution to 4,000 relevant railway contacts ■ Free circulation at the most important railway events and reunions ■ Available in print and CD format, free to consult online ■ Showcase along with unrivaled business insights on the Romanian railway market ■ Products & services information will also be posted in the Knowledge Center section

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April 2013 | www.railwaypro.com

30 Market development

Turkey wants to open the rail sector [ by Pamela Luică ]

The authorities of each European country are very much aware of the fact that railway liberalization increases the transport activity, as well as competitiveness, quality, varies services and encourages private investors. This is also something imposed by European policies. But when we talk about non-European countries, opening markets is something which makes the authorities sceptical mainly due to the rooted monopole policy of the state over the strategic and vital sectors of the economy.

A

lthough Turkey is only EU can- In 2003-2008, the action plan set by au- to the railway transport market and they didate country, the latest railway thorities for the railway system has led to could receive operation licenses of up to event, which proves that Euro- the modernization of TCDD and to the 49 years. pean policies have begun their step-by- harmonization of the Turkish legislation “The routes will remain to the state, step implementation, is the draft law pre- on rail transport to European standards. but those who will want to use them will sented to the Parliament by the Ministry In this period, the EU has facilitated the be able to do so, just like in road and air of Transport, Binali Yıldırım. Thus, the accession to loans for different railway transport. As regards the new draft law, the project “Rail System Liberalisation and projects (for example, EUR 120 Million access right will be given to companies on Rail Law” aims at separating the national has been allocated for the construction of a maximum period of 49 years”, declared railway company TCDD and at granting Ankara-Istanbul high-speed line through Minister of Transport Binali Yıldırım. transport licenses to private companies. the Pre-Accession Instrument and EIB According to the project, public and priThe adoption of the project would end the funds have amounted to EUR 850 Mil- vate entities will be able to receive license state monopole on the railway transport of lion). Moreover, the state’s interest in the for the construction of their own railway freight and passengers. railway sector has reflected in the invest- infrastructures for which they could beWe could say that the transformation and ments allocated over the past 10 years come operators of the infrastructure facilimodernisation of Turkey’s railway system when railway projects have received more ties and transport services in the network. in the last ten years is due, to a certain ex- than USD 14 Billion.

The authorities have already set up a tent, to Turkey’s EU accession process, The main objectives in the implementa- railway regulatory body operational since even if the government representatives tion of railway transport reforms in Eu- 2012. The Government wants that the would not open up about it. rope have consisted in the optimisation freight transport services provided by Although Minister of Foreign Affairs Ah- of competitiveness, the set-up of interna- Turktren will become profitable in five met Davutoglu said that because of mis- tional integrated and quality railway serv- years and that the railway freight transport understandings between the two parties, ices, the efficient use of the infrastructure share will reach 20% from the current 5% Turkey and EU could go on separate ways, capacity and the end of the market share until 2023. the current EU accession process has a decline. These are several objectives also significant impact on the reconstruction considered by Turkish authorities that Participation of the private sector of Turkey’s social, political and economic could be met through the liberalisation stimulated by railway investments sector. An example about the way in which programme recently launched by the MinEuropean policies become more and more istry of Transport.

“The liberalisation of the railway sector is important in Turkey’s progress is the conIn this context, in March, the govern- a historical step regarding the implication struction of high-speed lines and in the ment sent the Parliament the draft law on of the private sector” and to stimulate the future, the railway infrastructure develop- the separation of the national railway com- participation of the private sector in the ment strategy, also based on the develop- pany in two companies, the infrastructure railway area, “the investments allocated to ment of the high-speed network and the manager and the railway operator. Accord- the construction of the lines and rail stamodernization of existing railways, as well ing to the document, TCDD will maintain tions which will remain state-owned, will as on the acquisition of new rolling stock. the railway network management attribu- amount to USD 50 Billion. If we don’t inProjects concerning the development of tions and a new company, Turktren, will vest in infrastructure, railway companies Railway Reformrailway in Southsystem East Europe and Turkey: the Right Annexes could be sceptical as they would not have a modern are obvious of Ontake overTrack? the passenger and freight transEuropean influence since Turkey has been port services. The draft law, which could the courage to operate on an obsolete netneglected its railway system in the past become effective by the end of 2014, will work. The allocation of investments will Turkish Railways - Age Structure Rail Infrastructure Equipment 50 years Figure to the200: benefit of road transport. allow ofthe accession of private operators stimulate the participation of the private sector in the railway system”, declared Age Structure of Rail Infrastructure Equipment Minister of Economy Zafer Çağlayan.

According to the press, quoting the draft Telecommunication installations 13 82 32 law, lines Ankara-Eskişehir, Ankara-Konya and probably the latest line put in service (Eskişehir-Konya) will be opened to the Catenary system 22 57 4 15 1 private companies who will submit their offers.

Signalling System 18 55 26 1 As regards the liberalisation of the railway sector, Cavit Uğur, the General Manager of UTIKAD (Association of International < 10 years 11-20 years 21-30 years 31-40 years > 40 years Forwarding and Logistics Service ProvidSource: Railway Reform in South East Europe and Turkey: On the Right Track? World Bank, ©2011 Source: Turkish Railways.

www.railwaypro.com | April 2013

408. The rolling stock fleet of Turkish Railways is younger than a number of other

sets financed from EIB funds—with the delivery of 6 in 2008 and 6 in 2009. Investments in freight wagons include 509 units in 2005, 620 units in 2006, 990 units in 2007, 833 units in 2008, and 849 units in 2009.

Market development

31

Figure 204: Turkish Railways – Rail Infrastructure Investments 130,000

111,737

110,000 90,000 70,000

50,000

37,599

30,000

19,432

10,000

169 2005

31,045

327

270

2006

2007

38,855 338 2008

Investments

50,810

972

442

2009

1,100 1,000 900 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100

Investments (Euro millions)

Investment per km of rrack (Euros)

Rail Infrastructure Investments

far that would announce the government’s position on the opening of the railway sector to private companies.

At present, TCDD’s network amounts to 10,984 km and the railway infrastructure development strategy until 2023 stipulates the extension of the network to 25,940 km through the construction of 10,000 km of high-speed lines and of 4,000 km of conventional lines.

2010

Investment per km

Турция намеревается либерализовать железнодорожный сектор

В марте 2013 года правительство направило Парламенту законопроект ers) said in an interview from January that bridges for USD 5.6 Billion (the second о разделении национальной “the liberalization of the railway transport highest amount in the history of Turkey’s железнодорожной компании на два 417. Turkish Railways has a rail investment plan for the period 2010-2012.

This plan was will increase competitiveness and this is privatization plan), I would betray my общества - одно для управления approved TurkishofRailways’ Board of Directors and the State Planning Organization. thebypurpose several operators.

Also, country”.

Moreover, he said that in theIt totals инфраструктурой, а другое - для companies be capable to transport next period he would review thethe saleinfrastructure procEuro 3.57 billion, will of which Euro 2.44 billion is for infrastructure.

Nearly half обеспечения транспортных услуг. people and freight using their own trains ess of Istanbul gas supplier Başkentgaz. Согласно документу, TCDD сохранит investment program funds allocated for 2010-2012 are for the Ankara-Istanbul High-Speed and staff and the time, service quality and These statements came in a sensitive moза собой полномочия, связанные с Train—which also includes high-speed sets—with times higher cost of transport will be controlledtrain by opment investments when Turkeynearly wantsfour to tender the than управлением железнодорожной сетью, а erators.

Following the investments. liberalization, Investments it is construction and operation of an314 airport for track renewals and track in rolling stock total Euro million, новая of компания - «Тюрктрен» - возьмет expected willClearly, invest ainlarge Istanbul, apart other important на себя услуги по пассажирским и which under halfthat is the for private freight sector wagons. fraction of from government funds are being in different segments of the railway sector projects. Nevertheless, a month after the грузовым перевозкам. Законопроект allocated to the development of rapid high-speed passenger trains. For routes under 300 km, high-speed allowing Turkey to make progresses declaration of the Prime Minister, privatiможет вступить в силу до конца 2014 in the railway sector”. zation programmes are airport one thecongestion, right track. while rail tends to substitute air transport, and can be important for relieving года, и он позволит частным операторам The Government remains sceptical about becomes In March, Turkey sold several energyin highfor distances exceeding 1,000 km, air transport more attractive.

Investments вступить на рынок железнодорожных privatisation programmes and Prime Min- distribution centres for USD 3.5 Billion. перевозок. Они получат лицензии на speed rail should reflect the nature of potential traffic along those lines, composition of traffic, the ister Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared in Concerning the liberalisation of the railпроведение деятельности сроком до 49 February that “ifbenefits, I allowed conces- way sector and the concession of lines, the economic development andthe cost-recovery considerations. лет.

Source: Reform inare South East Europe and Turkey: On the Right Track? World Bank, ©2011 Note: Railway 2010 figures estimates.

Source: Turkish Railways.

sion of Istanbul’s network of highways and prime minister has made no declaration so Figure 205: Turkish Railways – Rail Infrastructure Investments by Type of Line 1,000 900

800

MARKET PLACE SEMINAR

High speed lines Other lines

700

656

600

INTERCONTINENTAL CORRIDORS

500

400 300

200

216

216

335

316

NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR RAIL FREIGHT?

100

0

254

136 33

73

54

2005

2006

2007

122

107

2008

2009

2010

Note: 2010 figures are estimates.

238

VIENNA

18-19 APRIL 2013

www.marketplaceseminar.org

April 2013 | www.railwaypro.com

32 Policies & Strategies

Turkey expects new railway law

[ by Elena Ilie ]

Over the next three years, Turkish Railways plans to invest over TRY 20 Billion (EUR 8.4 Billion) in transport projects. Investments will be aimed at speeding up the liberalization of state railways. Prior to the sale, the General Directorate of Turkish Railways (TCDD) plans to invest TRY 20 Billion in the production of rolling stock, but also in rail transport-related projects. The amount will be invested between 2013 and 2015.

T

he announcement was made during the “Eurasia Rail Rolling Stock, Infrastructure & Logistics” International Fair held on 7-9 March in Istanbul.

The third edition of the international fair, organized on two plans, exhibition of railway products and theme conferences, has hosted 287 companies of 25 countries pertaining to the Eurasian platform. Therefore, companies from countries such as Azerbaijan, the Czech Republic, Bulga-ria, Iran, Georgia, Spain, Romania, France, Greece, Turkmenistan, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Russia, South Korea, Serbia, Ukraine, Poland, Slovenia, USA and Turkey, of course, presented their products at the fair. The main categories of the exhibition focused on railway technology, train interiors, railway infrastructure, public transport, heavy industry, IT in transport, freight transport logistics and financial services. Club Feroviar was also one of the exhibitors of this year’s edition of the fair in Istanbul where it presented to visitors its broad range of railway business consultancy services.

Apart from the exhibition itself, Eurasia Rail also hosted theme conferences where the main topics included the effects of rail-

way restructuring on the sector and transportation, rapid freight transport, the Istanbul traffic and railway transport after the Marmaray Project, the pricing of railway freight transport, railway safety, advances in rail vehicle technology, advances in substructure and superstructure technology.

“1,086 km of new line were built from 2004 to 2012 and 3,434 km of new line are current-

ly in construction. Apart from these projects, Eskişehir-İstanbul section of the high-speed line Ankara-İstanbul will be commissioned on 30 September 2013 together with the Marmaray Project that will link Europe to Asia. Works on Ankara-Sivas high-speed line are also underway. Other projects underway are the high-speed lines Ankara-Bursa and Ankara-İzmir. We also have other works

Source: TCDD

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Policies & Strategies

underway, such as the rehabilitation of conventional lines and the improvement of the geometrical standard of these lines through maintenance and through the modernisation of the rolling stock fleet”, declared Süleyman Karaman, the General Manager of TCDD in an interview for february issue of Railway Pro. “Turkey has lately showed special interest in investing in railway infrastructures and this can be noticed in the positive results with the introduction of high-speed trains and in the development of as many km of high-speed railways as possible. We believe we will have 10,000 km of high-speed railways by 2023.

Over the past years, the Turkish Government has significantly increased investments in railway transport, both freight and passengers, so that in 2012 the state investments amount to TRY 25 Billion.

Nevertheless, we know it is not enough yet and we have to allocate more financial resources. By 2023, we plan to invest TRY 45 Billion”, pointed out Binali Yıldırım, the Turkish Minister of Transport.

USD 50 Billion investments in infrastructure until 2015 Through complex investments and railway transport development projects, Turkey seeks not only to boost the national economy (which has recorded remarkable growth over the past four decades ranking 16th in the world and 6th in Europe), but also to get closer to the European Union, a union that the neighbouring country wishes to access.

“Sooner or later, the European Union will accept Turkey as indispensable partner”, added Minister Yıldırım.

By the end of 2013, Turkey could adopt a new railway transport law to permit the liberalisation and reform of the railway sector and, of course, the implication of the private sector in the freight and passenger transport.

“The normative act proposal was submitted to the Parliament and a decision is expected. If the law is approved by Turkish Railways (TCDD), it will be restructured on freight, passenger and infrastructure transport segments. Also, the rail infrastructure maintenance activity will also be restructured, but it will still be managed

by TCDD. After liberalisation, the Turkish railway sector will be fully opened. We want to apply in the national legislation the examples of EU member states. Therefore, we will have a regulation on the infrastructure access charging, a railway safety regulation and we will make sure that the private sector will be integrated into the Turkish railway market. Moreover, the legislation which regulates the activity of engine drivers will be implemented according to European standards”, said during the conference Erol Çitak, the General Manager of the Railway Regulatory Authority (Demiryolu Düzenleme). İsa Apaydin, Deputy Director of Turkish Railways – TCDD, talked about the company’s plan to develop high-speed railway transport stressing the fact that Turkey speeded up works on the railway lines Kosekoy – Gebze and Ankara – Sivas.

At the end of March, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan inaugurated the third high-speed line Eskişehir – Konya.

The new line forms a network of the highspeed lines between the three big Turkish cities: Ankara, Eskisehir and Konya. “We have managed to build 137 km per year from

33

2004 to 2012 and the total number of km built is 1,094 km of line”, pointed out the Turkish PM who assured that works to other two important projects, Marmaray Tunnel and Baku – Tbilisi – Kars line, would also be accelerated.

During the inauguration of the Eskişehir – Konya line, Turkish Economy Minister Zafer Çaglayan promised a USD 50 Billion investment on the country’s physical network of railway lines, bridges and stations -which will remain in state hands -- by 2015.

That in turn would seem like an attractive deal for private firms that may be hesitant about operating on an outdated network and strengthens the argument that Ankara is betting that it can facilitate a more efficient transportation system based on railways.

Турция сделает крупные инвестиции в ближайшие три года Турецкая железнодорожная компания планирует инвестировать в ближайшие три года более 20 миллиардов турецких лир (8,4 млрд. евро) в проекты транспортной сферы. Инвестиции будут осуществляться на фоне попытки ускорения либерализации государственных железных дорог. До приватизации Генеральный директор Турецких железных дорог (TCDD) планирует инвестировать 20 миллиардов турецких лир в изготовление подвижного состава и в проекты, связанные с железнодорожным транспортом.

Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, Director General – UIC Speech from the previous edition of Railway Days

The International Union of Railways participates to the development of railway transport and of freight-dedicated international corridors. Railway transport connects countries, but also continents and cohesion is given by the number of railway projects, such as infrastructure modernization, building new lines, modernization of railway equipments, new rolling stock or research in the field. Recent studies of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have shown that the necessary investments in transport by 2030 amount to USD 11.3 Billion, 44% of which would be directed to railway transport (USD 5 Trillion).

European freight corridors, the new transport network in Brazil, the Russian projects, and the network in Central Asia or in the Basin of Mekong River, all these projects will revive railway transport. All indicators show that, despite the economic recession, by 2015, cargo transport could increase by 18%, while passenger transport by 80%.

By 2020-2040, over two billion people will move to the city, so it will be necessary to find mobility solutions for urban and suburban routes and rail transport plays an important role here. Railways are every day more involved in urban development and from the point of view of investments it is very important that the accent will fall on intercity, suburban and high-speed trains.

All intra-European corridors, those linking Europe to Asia and Middle East, need improvement, because they boost interoperability. I’m glad that we can now talk about the Black Sea transport links. UIC has discussed the matter with the Organisation of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC). Turkey will soon inaugurate the section Baku – Tbilisi – Kars, which is a plus for the link between the two continents and which will definitely increase the share of railway transport. At present, the key word is interoperability, also between continents, not only between European countries. Also, another key factor for cohesion is solving technical and administrative problems. Cohesion has to be at the core of the railway development policy. Security and safety are also important.

UIC is thus interested in studies of the development projects elaborated by other profile associations, such as OSJD. However, the railway transport sector is currently fragmented and market players are facing problems in observing administrative separation principles. Therefore, railway transport needs an improved harmonisation of technical and administrative rules both in Europe and Asia which will facilitate and ease cross-border operations.

There are several efficient solutions for this, among which satellite tracking systems, development of new international hubs, the mapping of the network, new data bases or the development of each data base of the authorities, a better standardisation of specific regulations in Europe, Asia and the 1520 Area, development of new transport corridors and new integration and charging systems.

Most new transport corridors between Europe and Middle East from East to West and North to South, also the new corridors linking Europe and Africa, as well as the key role of the Mediterranean hubs, all these, next to the major corridors which cross Europe (IV,V,IX and X) are key elements for development and territorial cohesion.

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34 Policies & Strategies

CFR Marfă will be sold in June.

BDZ Cargo privatization is still pending [ by Pamela Luică ]

The privatization of the national railway freight operators in Romania and Bulgaria has made the authorities constantly change their decisions since the announcement of the sale processes of the stakes of the two companies.

Regarding the sale of CFR Marfă, the Romanian authorities estimate that the operator will be sold at the middle of the year, but the finalization of the sale process of BDZ Cargo is still uncertain.

Cota de piata pe moduri de transport 2008 - 2011

W

hile Romania wants to sell CFR Market share of shipped freight Cota de piata pentru marfuri transportate Marfă in the next two months, over the last months, Bulgaria arfuri transportate year AN 2011 2011 has extended the period for the submission 08 of offers for BDZ Cargo several times and it Pipeline Transport prin is even possible that the authorities would transport Cota de piata conducte, change their minds and find another rescue 1,9 % plan for the company.transport In February, the Rorutier, CFR Marfă manian Government adopted CotaRoad de piata 79,5 % criteria besale strategy, the only attribution Maritime Transport market share ing the price. During the debate in the Parliatransport transport maritim ment Plenum, Deputy Prime Minister Daniel rutier, 12,2% Chiţoiu declared that “the privatization of the 57,6 % operator will be completed by mid-June 2013 with a strategic investor and will have a parInland Transport ticipation guarantee of EUR 10 Million, repWaterways fluvial, 17% of the nominal value of stateCota de resenting piata Railway Cota de piata 9,2 % owned shares”. market share sistem sistem The authorities have proposed the sale of a feroviar, feroviar, package of 51% shares to a strategic investor 14,5 % 19,1 % or consortium including strategic and financial investors and the selection will be made Source: The Global Enabling. Trade Report 2012 - Copyright © 2012 by the World Economic Forum through methods combined with prequalification criteria for investors, namely negotia- at RON 797 Million (EUR 180 Million) for investors a series of “prequalification criteria lui rutier a scazut la 79,5% anul 2008 lathe57,6% in anul 2011,put dartoreprezinta in continuare cel mai important tion based onde preliminary andinnon-binding entire package of shares sale and and relevant experience in freight transport, offers followed by sealed bid according to the the offer is valid 180 days since publication as well as operational and financial skills that Sistemul feroviar are o cota de piata de 19,1%, in crestere fata de anul 2008. legislation in force. with the possibility to be extended. The pay- will prove the possibility to take over and deAt the beginning of April, the Ministry of ment is to be made in one instalment through velop the business”, the document stipulates.

Transport the announcement “re- bank transfer when the transaction willde be catre The short list of the investors who will contransport rutierpublished sunt determinante pentru alegerea acestui tip de transport clienti: garding the share sale offer through methods completed. tinue CFR Marfă sale process will be elaboarfa “dincombined poarta in poarta” , practica tarife de transport transportul costul rutier with prequalification criteria con-mai mici The presentation file ofdecât the company could feroviar; rated at the end transportului of April. The Privatisation sisting in negotiation based on preliminary be bought for EUR 10,000 and a letter of Commission will negotiate with each of the icata transporturilor feroviare (cca 3.5 euro/tren-km) ci doar de rovigneta, incomparabil mai mica decât TUI, viteza and non-binding offers followed by sealed intent from the potential buyer is also nec- potential buyers included on the shortlist bid”, document which setssunt the starting priceintretinute essary. The authorities to beneficiaza potential starting withmulte 9 May.fonduri On 14 June, the Privatiransportul feroviar , soselele mai bine decât calea impose ferata si de mai pentru sation Commission will open the envelopes ¾ Anul 2010 inregistreaza scaderi containing the papers only for the bidders Evolution of shipped per si rutier Evolutia marfurilor transportate pe freight sistem feroviar that attend the procedure.

The check ale pietei transporturilor de marfa de transport rutier ar trebuiRailway sa orienteze mai2008-2011 hotarât factorii de decizie catre sustinerea sietmului de transport and Road in 2008-2011 in and perioada analysis of the documents will be made durdining România, cuwhen 33,7% subwill be an400.000 the same day the winner 361.805 Railway Roadrutier nounced.anterioara crizei Sistem feroviar Sistem prestatia 350.000 auto congestioneaza circulatia pe sosele , polueaza atmosfera, are o siguranta mai mica in circulatie; in anulof2010 According to the declarations Romanian mondiale.

293.409 Minister of Transport Relu Fenechiu, Grup 300.000 ost înregistrate 9213 accidente, in scadere cu doar 3% fata de 2009. Cifrele plaseazăFeroviar România în coada Român and Transferoviar Grup, two 250.000 of the2011 largestinregistreaza Romanian railway transport cest punct de vedere. ¾Anul cresteri 183.629 companies, are interested in the privatisation 174.551 200.000 fataofde anul 2010, piatathe two comCFR Marfă.

“As fardar as I know, 4 panies have expressed their interest 150.000 transporturilor este departe de in the sale of CFR Marfă and have discussed with realizarile anului 2008.

Volumul 100.000 the consultants dealing with the privatisation 66.711 52.931 50.596 60.723 process”.

Apart from the two de marfuri transportate in companies, Româniain 50.000 an interview for local publication “Bursa”, Zvi in anul reprezinta doar 70%AsOren,2011 the President of the Manufacturers 0 2008 2009 2010 2011 of Israel, fatasociation de anul 2008.declared that there is interest in the state companies to be privatized, inSource: The Global Enabling. Trade Report 2012 - Copyright © 2012 by the World Economic Forum www.railwaypro.com | April 2013

¾ In anul 2010, transportul rutier s-a prabusit, cu o pierdere de 51,8% fata de 2008 in

Policies & Strategies Tonnes carried 2010/2011

Work performed for 2010/2

ticipate in the next phase of the tender: Grup Feroviar Român (Romania), Cargo Express 300 and Balkan Financial Services (Bulgaria) and 250 Donau-Finanz 200 Transport und Beteiligung (Austria).150 At the end of March, the Privatisation Agen100 cy announced having extended once again the deadline for50submitting binding offers in order to buy BDZ 0Cargo,1 the new 2 deadline 3 4 being5 set 6 7 for 29 April. The postponement was made at 157,2 188,6 190,8 207 199,5 203,3 the demand the participating companies, 2010of 158,7 the initial deadline being 12 March and the 2011 183,2 181,7 192,1 216,9 224,7 211,9 203,7 first postponement was for March 28. In case the offers are not complying with the authori- ɦɟɫɟɰ ties’ expectations, the privatisation process will be postponed once more or even annulled.

“If there are no serious offers for BDZ Cargo2010 sale, the Privatisation Agency could cancel de bid. The sale of the freight transport division is just one of the company’s rescue solutions”, said interim Minister of Transport Kristian Krastev. He mentioned that he “revived” the dialogue with the creditors and employees of BDZ to find a way to stabilize and save the company. The interim minister also said that he was against a privatization “at all costs” and that the government was also working on a rescue plan which involved a loan from the World Bank.

BDZ Cargo owns 799 buildings around the country and 1,129,799 square metres of land. It also owns 189 locomotives and 4,859 cars. Several cars will be sold to scrap iron and replaced with 321 cargo wagons and 5 passenger coaches. Moreover, in March the company launched a tender for the repair of 100 tank wagons, with the contract divided in two lots. The contract is estimated at BGN 3.88 Million (EUR 1.98 Million) and offers could be submitted by 20 April. The deadline for the finalization of repair works was set in 6 months.

In the period 2009-2011, the company has only had losses estimated, in 2011, at EUR 8.6 Million. In the first 6 months of 2012, BDZ Cargo carried 5.58 million tonnes of freight, 18% less than during the same period of 2012 (when it carried 6.77 million tonnes of freight) and traffic dropped by 15.7% (from 1.4 billion t-km to 1.2 billion t-km).

m ill tonkm

thousand tonnes

Tonnes carried 2010/2011

1200 1000 800 600 400 200 0

35

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

2010 772,5 769,3 878,1 784,9 850,1 850,1 856,4 953,2 984,1 1067 1071 940,9 2011 916,3 896,1 960 1018 1045 991,4 948,1 880,5 961,5 1042 1032 880,5

ɦɟɫɟɰ 2010

2011

Source: Yordan Nedev, BDZ-Cargo

cluding CFR Marfă. “I will ask the Embassy of Israel to send a list with everything that will be privatised and we will find a solution to inform the businessmen in Israel about it.

If there is a joint interest, we will study our options”, said Oren.

If the Ministry of Transport is not able to conclude the privatisation contract with the investor, the resumption of the privatisation process will be decided by applying any method of transfer of the right of property on the shares by correspondingly adapting the strategy or by inviting to negotiations according to the classification in the bid of the following shortlisted investors.

CFR Marfă has a rolling stock fleet which includes over 39,000 cars (of which only 23,000 are currently in use) and over 900 locomotives, the volume of assets placing the company in an advantageous position compared to other state-owned operators in Central and South-Eastern Europe. As regards its market share, the operator holds the monopoly compared to the other operators set up after 2001.

Even if these figures place the operator among the largest in Eastern Europe, CFR Marfă has debts of over EUR 405 Million to the state budget and the infrastructure manager and delay penalties and arrears to private investors. Also, in March, CFR Marfă estimated to end the year with losses of EUR 47.7 Million, 2.2 times higher than the negative outcome budgeted for 2012. The transport activity has also recorded drops: according to UIC, in the first 6 months of 2012, CFR Marfă carried 14.8 million tonnes, 15.6% less compared to the same period of 2011, while

traffic dropped by 9.4% (from 3.17 billion t-km to 2.8 billion t-km).

BDZ Cargo sale could be cancelled Increase in tons carried and work done – 7% and 5,6% respectiv As in the case of CFR Marfă, for which the Increase in domestic freight traffic authorities declared different dates for the – 11%; launch of the tender, the initiation of BDZ Cargo sale process was postponed several Increase of transport trough border stations – 6%, and incre times. In June 2012, Bulgaria’s Privatisation Post-Privatisation Agency announced transit trafficand by 14%; that there were companies interested to buy the operator, and BDZ representatives said they were optimistic that the shares would Increase of import trough ports – 20%. be sold by the end of 2012 (in November,

RKET SHARE

the Agency was already launching the second procedure). Now we are in 2013 and since the beginning of the year, the authorities have already extended the deadline for the submission of offers three times.

In order to buy the company, the future buyer should invest over EUR 50 Million in the renewal of the rolling stock in the first year.

The sale price of BDZ Cargo varies between EUR 60-130 Million, according to BDZ President Vladimir Vladimirov, while the Privatisation Agency has priced BDZ’s freight division at BGN 190-250 Million (EUR 97-128 Million). According to the latest declarations of the Minister of Transport, Ivailo Moskovski, the government hopes to get EUR 102.3 Million from selling BDZ Cargo.

7 investors expressed their interest in buying the shares of the operator in December 2012 (6 of them bought the tender papers and one demanded the postponement of the submission deadline), of which only 4 received the approval of the Agency to par-

Market Share 2010

Source: Yordan Nedev, BDZ-Cargo

Продажа «ЧФР Марфэ» состоится в июне. Положение «БДЖ Карго» еще не определено Приватизация национальных операторов железнодорожных перевозок в Румынии и Болгарии призывали власти постоянно менять решения, с момента объявления процесса продажи акций двух компаний. Что касается продажи «ЧФР Марфэ», румынские власти оценивают, что продажа оператора состоится в середине года, но завершение приватизации «БДЖ Карго» вызывает еще вопросы.

April 2013 | www.railwaypro.com

36 Policies & Strategies

For Greece, privatization of ports equals economic growth

For investors, a gateway to the European market |

08 09

[ by Pamela Luică ]

Competitive advantages of the Port of Piraeus

The process for the privatization of the Greek ports is seen by the authorities as a chance for economic growth and development and by investors as the accession in a market which facilitates access to Europe.

Interested in this opportunity, three economically developed countries are paying attention to the tender calls in order to be able to access the capital of ports and to expand their activity range at the same time.

T

An advantageous geographic position on the crossroads of Asia-Africa-Europe.

he main objective of the privatiza- tribution to economic development and process, the authorities estimated revenues

Adequate infrastructure deepa draughts for the service of the50 largest container tion processes is to limit the role of facilities growthand andnatural they have vital contribution of USD Billion (by 2015), an amount carriers.through in the transit and circulation of freight. Go- sharply reduced to USD 10 Billion, funds the state inand thecar economy the different sectors and to offer an environ- vernments implement privatisation policies used to stimulate the economic revival and

Operation the free zone status I. ment that is favourable to the under development directed totype the efficient and productive op- to reduce the level of debts. The privatisaof the private sector whose role is container to add eration ports in on conformity market tion includes banks, utilities, ports, airOperation of the and carof terminals a 24-hourwith basis, 365 days perlist annum. value to the economy by ensuring a much circumstances and in order to stimulate ports, roads and railways. According to the Graduallyofdifferentiated offering discounts for increased transhipment quantitiesagency, of containers more efficient organisation investments tariff private resources to invest in increasing the privatisation Hellenic Republic Asand administrationandand by stimulating capacity of ports. set Development Fund’s –HRADF, the sale cars. competitiveness.

Greece has thus expressed its intention process of two companies worth USD 260

Competitive tariff the storage of cargoes.

Thus, many countries choose to sellfor their of selling its ports providing opportunities Million was completed in 2012, the target transport companies and the goods transto both domestic and foreign companies to set for this period being of over USD 4

A large numbertoofinvesfeeder services mosttheir of the main ports the Mediterranean. port divisions are more appealing buy andwith develop activities and of infraBillion. However, the authorities hope to tors. The authorities have decided sell structure. most of the privatisation plan this

Application of an to integrated information system on the operations of thecomplete port. ports in order to increase the infrastructure This year will be marked by Greece’s effort year. “We hope to have a progress with our

Operating under based international standards regulationsplan (ISPS). quality and capacity, the volume of security freight conditions of privatising its on state-owned industry, de- and privatisation this year”, declared Hatziand to optimise commercial activities. clared the country’s Minister of Economy dakis. For 2013, the authorities’ estimates Qualified and Ports are known worldwide for experienced their con- staff Kostis Hatzidakis. Through the privatisation on the privatisation process amount to Odessa

Source: PIRAEUS PORT AUTHORITY S.A., Investment Plan 2012 - 2016

www.railwaypro.com | April 2013

Note: The figure for motorcycles of coastal shipping refer to the period from 1-4-2011

Policies & Strategies

TRAFFIC OFTraffic MERCHANDISE THE OF2011 PIRAEUS 2011 of merchandiseAT at the PortPORT of Piraeus CATEGORY

MERCHANDISE TRANSFERRED

CONTAINERS (T.E.U.)

500.133

CARS – MERCHANDISE (Vehicles)

417.659

Source: PIRAEUS PORT AUTHORITY S.A., Investment Plan 2012 - 2016

USD 2.6 with investments coming initiallythe agreed to sell 23.1%ofand Figures forBillion Container traffic do not include traffic through Container Terminal PCT23.3% S.A. of mainly from China and Russia, countries shares respectively (with additional share for which statistics are expected at the end of 2011 that are interested both in ports and in the national railway company, Trainose, also on Source: PPA the state’s listSAof sales.

Although Greece is pressed by its financial situation and is thus forced to sell many state-owned companies, European governments are concerned with the participation of non-European countries which could significantly expand their activities in Europe by taking over strategic companies. Such is the case of Russia and China which are very interested in buying Greek ports. China seems to be very interested in the Greek ports especially since the Chinese maritime operator Cosco and the railway operator Trainose develop transport partnerships in the port of Piraeus and, the press says, would be interested in taking over the main north-south railway.

The portfolio of the Greek State consists in 12 ports (as Societé Anonyme), Piraeus (OLP), Thessaloniki (OLTh), Volos, Rafina, Igoumenitsa, Patras, Alexandroupoli, Iraklio, Elefsina, Lavrio, Corfu and Kavala.

The state owns a stake of 74% in OLP and OLTh (traded on Athens Stock Exchange) and 100% in the other ports mentioned above. The official website of the privatisation agency says that “the state is in process of appropriate evaluation for the exploitation of this portfolio setting the groups of ports to be privatised through a series of transactions”.

According to the ministry of finances, the privatisation package includes all the 12 ports, including the Port of Piraeus and Thessaloniki in which the government has



sales).

China, Russia and Turkey, interested in the share sale In January, the local press informed that Cosco operator was interested in investing EUR 1 Billion in the Port of Piraeus, the Chinese group being interested in taking over 60% of the port’s shares. The planned investment was presented by the Chinese side after Athens Government has decided to sell stakes in the two large ports (Piraeus and Thessaloniki) and Minister of Finances Giannis Stournaras said in an interview that “Cosco group has expressed its interest in extending investments to Piraeus”, without providing further details.

Also, the Turkish holding Akfen (which holds a stake in TAV Group with activities in air transport) is interested in the privatisation programme and hopes to access the Greek market. “Considering our implication in the tenders launched by Greece, we are paying attention to the privatisation process. Also, massive investments in this country should not be a surprise and we are thus seeking opportunities to invest in the Greek ports”, declared Hamdi Akın, CEO of Akfen, for Anatolia agency.

Russia is also interested in the Greek ports which are connected to the railway network.

“The Government plans to privatise the railway operator responsible for freight and passenger transport, but not the infrastructure. Moreover, it is possible to buy stakes

 Conventional Cargo

      

Source: Thessaloniki Port Authority S.A.



37

in the ports that are connected to the railway network”, declared the RZD President Vladimir Yakunin.

According to him, Russian Railways is carefully studying the privatisation process launched by the authorities. “If we talk about the development of railway transport, the first thing to consider has to be the synergy: ports, railways and customers. That is why we consider them as a whole, but from the point of view of railway transport profitability”, said Yakunin, adding that RZD could use credits to purchase Greek assets and also considered accessing the capital of the railway operator Trainose.

At the end of February, the privatisation agency, HRADF, announced the development strategy of the 12 ports for which two alternatives are considered. The first consists in the concession of individual port activities through concession agreements that would ensure the commitment of investment and the delivery of quality services. The second alternative consists in the concession of all the activities of the port (“Master Concession”) through the sale of HRADF majority stake combined with the renegotiations of the current concession agreement between Greece and Societe Anonyme (the owner of the ports) so that it would be aligned to the current international standards and to ensure a high level of investments and delivered services.

“The option to be applied will depend on the development strategy, the competitiveness level and the expressed interest of investors. Nevertheless, the process will involve the concession of the rights of operation and exploitation of the port areas while the property right remains to the Hellenic Railways”, the agency says.

HRADF plans to initiate the privatisation process for the privatisation of the two large ports (Piraeus and Thessaloniki), the first tender being launched in the second half of 2013 for the sale of Thessaloniki Port.

Для Греции приватизация портов означает экономический рост Для инвесторов – это окно вступления на европейский рынок Процесс приватизации греческих портов рассматривается властями как шанс экономического роста и развития, а для инвесторов - как вступление на рынок, способствующий доступ к Европе. Проявляя интерес к такой возможности, три экономически сильных государства внимательно следят за объявления тендеров для участия в капитале портов и, вместе с тем, для расширения сферы экономической деятельности.

April 2013 | www.railwaypro.com

38 Asset management

Outsourcing reduces initial infrastructure investments [ by Elena Ilie ]

In order to win back market shares and shift the modes of transportation, the European infrastructure managers spend more costinefficiently bothInfrastructure on renewal and maintenance. It is clear that railways CER Dataneed ontoInvestment Existing carry the burden of a very costly infrastructure. Modernisation of services is identified as a key element.

(in EUR per track length) PPP adjusted

Investment in Existing Infrastructure (in EUR per track length) - EU27 PPP adjusted 140,000 2005 2006 2007

120,000

100,000

CZ

LT

SK

SI

HR

HU

PL

EE

CER Data on Investment in Running Expenditures Data on Investment in Running Expenditures (in EUR per CER track length) PPP adjusted (in EUR per track length) PPP adjusted Running Expenditures (in EUR per track length) - EU27 PPP adjusted

published, reduced infrastructure quality is not easily revealed. Only at the end of a long period, at a point where speed limits have to be lowered for safety reasons, does the true size of the problem become visible.

Over the past years, the outsourcing of railway infrastructure maintenance services has become part of the cost strategy and risk management. Outsourcing reduces the initial infrastructure investments, provides specialized expertise and maintenance facilities.

CER Data on Investment in Existing

CER Data on Investment in Existing Infrastructure Infrastructure (in EUR per per tracktrack length) PPP adjusted (in EUR length) PPP adjusted Investment in Existing Infrastructure (in EUR per track length) - EU27 PPP adjusted 140,000 2005 2006 2007

120,000

100,000

80,000

60,000

40,000

20,000

CZ

SK

SI

LT

HR

PL

EE

HU

LV

RO

BA

BG

EU12

UK

EU15

IT

LU

NL

DE

CH

IE

BE

ES

FI

AT

DK

SE

0 FR

LV

RO

BA

BG

EU12

LU

UK

IT

NL

DE

BE

CH

IE

ES

DK

FI

AT

FR

SE

lity, for example by subdividing mechanical and electronic components into modules that could be exchanged easily.

Specialists also talk about implementing new maintenance and management systems by condition monitoring devices that measure status related symptoms and automate inspections. Countries such as Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands have completely outsourced their rail infrastructure maintenance activities and the conclusion of multi-annual contracts for infrastructure maintenance play a crucial role.

7 The rail sector has succeeded in improving its safety performance in Europe. However, the same does not always apply to infrastructure quality. Where income does not suffice to maintain large, often oversized, networks, the infrastructure service quality will decline. Without (common) performance indicators being defined and EU15

T

his also implies a change for the industry with regards to organisation. The European railways are 60,000 major challenges with regard to facing maintenance and management of the infrastructure.

In the last decades the budgets 40,000 for maintaining and renewing the infrastructure have been reduced throughout 20,000 Europe, which implies a thorough prioritisation by the infrastructure managers. At 0 the same time the UIC benchmark study InfraCost has demonstrated differences between the European railways their reThe Voice of Europeanin Railways source allocation and their output.

Specialists show the importance of using new infrastructure and maintenance development technologies by introducing new railway systems and components with a longer life-expectancy, new construction systems for turnouts for increasing maintenance intervals and life-expectancy. It is also important the design for maintainabi80,000

The Voice of European Railways

300,000

Source: CER

2005 2006 2007

250,000

7

Аутсорсинг сокращает объем изначальных инвестиций в инфраструктуру

CER Data on Investment in Running Expenditures (in EUR per track length) PPP adjusted

200,000

Running Expenditures (in EUR per track length) - EU27 PPP adjusted

300,000

150,000

2005 2006 2007

250,000

На протяжении последних лет, аутсорсинг технического обслуживания железнодорожной инфраструктуры стал частью стратегии экономии затрат и управления рисками. Аутсорсинг сокращает объем изначальных инвестиций в инфраструктуру, обеспечивает экспертную оценку и определенные льготы для технического обслуживания.

200,000

100,000

150,000

100,000

50,000

50,000

HU

LT

SK

HR

SI

LV

BG

PL

EE

BA

CZ

RO

EU12

NL

EU15

LU

BE

IT

DE

CH

ES

UK

DK

AT

IE

FI

FR

SE

0

0

Source: CER

HU

LT

SK

HR

SI

BG

LV

EE

PL

BA

RO

CZ

EU12

EU15

NL

LU

BE

IT

DE

UK

CH

ES

AT

DK

IE

FR

FI

SE

The Voice of European Railways

The Voice of European Railways 8

www.railwaypro.com | April 2013

8

39

EUROPEAN RAIL CONGRESS

Annual Rail Awards and Summit Scheduled to arrive in London on 12 November 2013

SIIM KALLAS European Transport Commissioner Keynote Speaker & Judge

BRIAN SIMPSON MEP Chair of European Parliamentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Transport & Tourism Committee & Chair of Judging Panel

MATTHIAS RUETE Director-General, European Commission, DG MOVE & Chair of Technical Panel

The new European Rail Congress, a two day industry Summit and annual Rail Awards ceremony, provides a dynamic platform for key rail sector ďŹ gures right across the European continent to highlight and reward best practice as well as discuss and debate key challenges and opportunities for European rail.

Entries will be accepted online at www.europeanrailcongress.com up to 19 April 2013.

Entries will be assessed by a judging panel of MEPs and an expert advisory technical panel.

Winners of the prestigious awards will be announced at an Awards Ceremony and Dinner at the 2013 European Rail Congress in London 12 to 13 November 2013. europeanrailcongress.com

April 2013 | www.railwaypro.com

40 lex

Russia forbids the extension of wagon lifecycle [ by Pamela Luică ]

The railway accident which took place in Irkutsk region (in January 2013), on the Trans-Siberian line, determined the authorities in charge to take drastic measures as regards the lifecycle of wagons.

Immediately after the preliminary results of the investigation, the Russian Federal Service for Transport Supervision, Rostransnadzor, prohibited the lifetime extension of moulded parts in wagon bogies, an idea which was also supported by the Minister of Industry and Trade, Denis Manturov.

T

o prevent the reuse of faulty components, in case of products with expired lifetime, the authorities excluded the possibility of their commissioning, and for this purpose, the authorities requested to the Russian Railways to inform rolling stock owners and car fleet repair and maintenance companies.

The reaction of the rolling stock owners was not delayed, since they announced that they are not willing to quickly apply this regulation. “The Council of the Market of Rolling Stock Operators offers to implement a gradual ban on extension of wagons’ lifetime, it is written in the letters by Dmitry Korolyov, Executive Director of the partnership to Vladimir Chepets, Acting Head of the Federal Agency for Railway Transport (Roszheldor) and Alexey Tsydenov, Deputy Transport Minister.

In Russia, the standard lifetime of an open wagon is 22 years, that of a tank wagon is 32 years, and that of a wagon for grain transportation is 30 years. By repairing their wagons, rolling stock owners can extend their lifetime by 50% two times, the maximum lifetime of an open wagon can be extended to 44 years.

According to the rzd-partner.com publication, “wagon builders and RZD asked to ban extension of wagon lifetime because of derailments, which have become more and more frequent. The Transport Ministry offers to limit wagon lifetime by one or two terms to load RZD’s network”.

The Council of the Market of Rolling Stock Operators announced that it will remove wagons from the network when they achieve some definite age, the terms and maximum age are being subsequently

discussed, said Valery Shpakov, CEO of Novaya Perevozochnaya Kompaniya (New Forwarding Company, a member of the Council). The extension of special wagons’ lifetime (wagons for heavy and oversized cargo, for refrigerated cargo) should not be banned, because these types of rolling stock are practically not produced in Russia, says Shpakov.

As regards the measure of banning the extension of wagons’ lifetime, Freight One, announced its objection, because the economy is more likely to lose from these new standards than to win: the initiative of wagon builders will cause a 30% decline in the revenue of all private operators, and part of them can even leave the market, the “Vedomosti” newspaper mentions.

As regards the matter of manufacturing the wagons, the builders must execute the rolling stock by means of a modern technology which should comply with transport needs.

“If all market players do not follow the coordinated transportation technology on Russian Railways’ network, wagon idling is inevitable and wagons will disappear from the routed where the transport market can develop”, declared Semyon Rezer, President of non-commercial partnership Guild of Freight Forwarders.

In terms of costs of the rolling stock, according to the market players, the prices for the open wagons have decreased by 20-25% on average because of the decline in demand. Railway operators, which purchased wagons in 2012, mentioned that the approximate price is RUB 2-2.25 Million (EUR 49.6 Thousand – EUR 55.8 Thousand), excluding VAT, writes rzd-partner. com. Specialists of Freight One declare that

TransContainer Flatcar Fleet Railcars specialised for transportation of ISO containers

Indicator Total Flatcar Fleet in operation Flatcars 40 ft Flatcars 60 ft Flatcars 80 ft

3 m 12

6 m 12

9 m 12

12 m 12

chng, %

units 24,526

24,440

24,448

25,086

+2.28

units 5,877 units 13,133 units 5,516

5,743 13,133 5,564

5,734 13,037 5,677

6,171 13,008 5,907

+5.00 -0.95 +7.09

Source: www.trcont.ru

www.railwaypro.com | April 2013

there are offers to buy an open wagon for RUB 1.6 Million (approximately EUR 40 Million) in the market, while a year ago similar models amounted to RUB 2.3 Million (EUR 57 Thousand).

Likewise, due to the decline in demand of wagons, Uralvagonzavod (UVZ) builder could reduce its production by 26% this year, declared the head of the company, Oleg Sienko. Within the conference held by the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, the participants have debated the matter of the wagon production influenced by the demand in the market.

According to the head of UVZ, this would have a negative impact on the production of open wagons.

Russian Railways • Carries 1.2 billion tonnes of freight annually across 11 time zones • Responsible for 42,3% of Russia’s total freight traffic (including pipelines) • Assets worth over 3189.9 billion roubles • Rolling stock includes: 1,026,600 goods wagons

Россия запрещает продление срока эксплуатации грузовых вагонов Железнодорожная авария, произошедшая в Иркутской Области (январь 2013 года) по Транссибирской магистрали, побудила компетентные власти применить жесткие меры по поводу срока эксплуатации вагонов. Сразу же после получения предварительных результатах расследования, Российская Федеральная служба по надзору в сфере транспорта Ространснадзор - запретила продлевать срок службы комплектующих тележек для грузовых вагонов. Данную идею также поддержал министр Промышленности и Торговли, Денис Мантуров.

Market development

41

New freight terminal in Uzbekistan [ by Elena Ilie ]

The Cabinet of Ministers in Uzbekistan plans to support the establishment and development of an intermodal logistics centre in Namangan region. Within the new intermodal terminal, the annual freight volumes to be handled are estimated at four million tonnes. The terminal will improve the transport infrastructure and logistics in Ferghana region and will increase the volume of carried freight.

Main regional markets reachable from Uzbekistan is in the top of the countries Navoi ILC in Asia-Pacific which have become aware Figure 8: Main regional markets reachable from Navoi ILC of the importance of developing dry ports, so that those in Navoi, Angren (Tashkent Region) and the International Logistics Centre are in full process of modernisation and the facilities it provides to trade and international transport place Uzbekistan on the international market of logistics.

Navoi Region has a high land transport transit potential. The developed transport network and the integrated international transport system, which is also a key challenge in the communication system inContainerSource: trains Egis moveInternational from Tashkent to Teheran in 7 days and from Tashkent via Teheran to / Dornier Consulting in 10 days. All regional rail tracks leading to ports of Turkey and Iran in the South and Central Asia and the CIS countries, transitIstanbul to ports of Black and Baltic Seas in the North pass through Navoi. The shortest railway the city of Navoi, while the internationalconnection (Iran) inEurope the also south further betweenroute China and runs through Navoi. going The Guzarto – Baysun Kumkurgan railway line (9.8 km of the railway line “Termez-Khairaton” were built with a 2 M rail transport corridors such as the routeEuros theof thecountries in the Middle East and the grant EU) allows the shortest transit to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

FIEZPersian is connectedGulf. to E-40 Motorway by dual-dual road (2 km) and international railway (4.7 “Afghanistan – Central Asia – Europe”The km). There are 26 km of roads inside the FIEZ providing a direct access to the manufacturing available. Two 5 hectares TIR parking are available alongside centre the road of the cargo are in the immediate neighbourhood offacilities is Another international logistics Navoi Airport. Currently, secondary rail-terminal. was opened at the middle of January 2010 380 hectares are reserved for industrial enterprises and 14 hectares for administration, of conformance, of origin, banking and other services. ways are being built to connect the cityCustomsinclearing, thecertificates Uzbek city ofcountry Angren (Tashkent logistics of the FIEZ is mainly provided by the international intermodal cargo hub of the of Navoi to Uchkuduk – Nukus – VolgoThe Region).

The located in Ablyk Navoi Airport.

Since August 2008centre Korean Air is is flying Seoul - Navoi – Milan weekly and Airways (jointly with Russian Moscovia air company) Navoi – Tashkent – Moscow. route to the north-west, to Samarqand –Uzbekistan rail station and can thus receive and procThe land transit potential is also prospective. The railway represents the most efficient / safest Tashkent – Dustik route in the east and tosolution ess goods andDistribution then Network deliver them back holds to a great for NATO’s Northern and the E-40 Motorway for the cargo flow between Europe and China via the border-crossing point at Dostyk Bukhara – Turkmenistan – Bandar-Abbaspotential Andijan, (Druzhba), Kazakhstan. Namangan and Ferghana, the eastern regions in Uzbekistan. In 2011, the volume of carried goods increased by 50%. Also, the incentives to be granted will help increase freight traffic through the new logistics centre. A relevant example is the measure adopted by Uzbekistan Railways which reduced to half the tariff for the delivery of freight from any part of Uzbekistan to Ablyk rail station.

Logistics Processes and Motorways of the Sea ll

Page 24 of 37

Uzbekistan

LOGMOS Country Profile

Новый грузовой терминал в Узбекистане

Source: http://www.mapsofworld.com

T

he current rearrangement of global economy’s architecture and the continuing fluctuations in the main quotations in financial markets clearly demonstrate the uncertainty that now occupies the minds of the leading analysts and managers of investment companies and funds. The same happens in transportation. The major players in the market are actively diversifying their businesses, rushing out of the crisis Europe to the fastgrowing Asia-Pacific region.

In these circumstances, Uzbekistan has all opportunities to maximize its potential, and to attract foreign investors.

Regarding the development of intermodal transport and container freight transport, the most important regions are Navoi and Angren which became important economic centres on the map of Uzbekistan after developing intermodal terminals.

Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, and, at the same time, the most important economic area, is also an important intermodal hub.

Кабинет министров Узбекистана планирует поддержать создание и развитие интермодального логистического центра в регионе Наманган. В рамках нового интермодального терминала, годовой объем перевозимых грузов прогнозируется в размере четырех миллионов тонн. Терминал обеспечит улучшение транспортной и логистической инфраструктуры в регионе Фергана, увеличивая объем перевозимых грузов.

April 2013 | www.railwaypro.com

42 Market development

Railway freight transport needs to be information-oriented [ by Elena Ilie ]

One of the methods for increasing the attractiveness of rail freight transport is reducing the volume of necessary documents. The manual information system is flawed, slows down the process of booking transport tickets and increases costs. The entire railway system needs electronic support in all these operations.

D

uring December 2012 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; January 2013, DG MOVE has circulated a questionnaire aimed to evaluate the progress with the e-Freight project. The European Commission wishes to improve the economic competitiveness of Europe paying special attention to the transport sector. The data of the analysis launched by DG MOVE are not yet public, but a complete report will most probably be published soon.

E-Freight Integrated Programme, European e-Freight Integrated capabilities for comodal transport Project â&#x20AC;&#x201C; EFIP, began in

Photo: www.panoramio.com/YP36

www.railwaypro.com | April 2013

2010 and ends in 2014. The project involves 30 partners from 14 EU member states, plus Norway, in a platform-programme aimed to prove and validate the capabilities and the innovations brought by the informatisation of the bureaucratic elements of cargo transportation.

The informatisation of transport, especially of freight transport, can only bring added value from the economic point of view. The electronic applications for the simplification of railway freight transit procedures, efreight, are considered by the White Paper on Transport of 2011, as key initiatives in

the establishment of the Single European Railway Area.

The effectiveness of railway freight transport is an ambitious and complex project of the European Union. Despite its wellknown advantages, especially for heavy and massive goods, railway transport is burdened by elements related both to technical and legislative aspects. These are the barriers that need to be removed in order to create an interoperable network throughout the entire Europe, but also on the corridors providing links to Asia.

In general, railway operators continue to

be too little oriented to the needs and expectations of their customers which become stricter every day and which mainly refer to the reliability and cost of transport, to available capacities and to the management of information, transport times and flexibility.

Consequently, railway transport is today confronted with a series of difficulties which partially explain its incapacity to increase its market share.

The quality of services remains the weak point of railway freight transport and its customers demand a higher commitment and transparency in the area. The Commission considers that the services provided along the European railway network and dedicated to freight transport have to be the best from the point of view of quality which, once improved, should have a positive impact on railway freight transport as a whole.

The quality gained on freight transport oriented corridors could become an example for this sector in Europe.

Currently, certain sections are saturated, especially on some central areas of the Union, along the main freight transport axes.

The different rail traffic forecast studies in Europe indicate the fact that, around 2020, it is possible to experience additional and very problematic bottlenecks. In case it is insufficiently dealt with, this phenomenon could be accentuated by the intensification of traffic along the freight-dedicated corridors. On the other hand, the competitiveness of freight transport could increase due to the higher volumes of freight that each train can carry. This means an improved infrastructure capacity especially in terms of train length, load, axle load and maximum speed. These elements prove the necessity of coordinated and oriented investments in freightdedicated corridors so that traffic will be as fluid as possible and railway transport as competitive as possible.

The European Commission has requested the corridor structures to elaborate a plan dedicated to eliminating bottlenecks and to the harmonisation and increase of the infrastructure capacity, especially as regards the length and maximum load of trains.

Slowing down traffic at bottlenecks (generally close to urban agglomerations), cross-border traffic, where a lot of time is spent with administrative or technical obligations, as well as the deadlines for accessing railway services (terminals, switchyards) are still three of the major difficulties met in international rail freight transport. These difficulties severely affect the average speed and they can be considered the same hindrances which limit the capacity and the reliability of freight transport by affecting the infrastructure.

The broader use of electronic applications, e-freight, as well as the ERTMS, would significantly facilitate cross-border freight traffic and would also increase the market share of rail freight transport. Also, speeding up the development of the ten freightdedicated corridors set through Regulation 913/2010 would lead to an improved uniformisation of railway freight traffic and to an increased market share of this type of traffic which could even outrun its rival, road traffic.

The information technology permits simpler and more reliable transfers. The transport users will pay for the total cost of transport, while benefiting from less congestion, more information, quality services and improved safety in the long-distance freight transport.

Железнодорожные грузовые перевозки недостаточно оснащены в плане информационных технологий Одним из способов повышения привлекательности железнодорожных грузовых перевозок является сокращение количества необходимых документов. Ручная система предоставления информации выдает ошибки, замедляет процесс бронирования проездных документов и приводит к повышению затрат. Вся железнодорожная система нуждается в электронной поддержке всех этих операций.

60th UITP World Congress and Mobility & City Transport Exhibition

# 21 Congress sessions and 10 Regional workshops # 15 Expo forums to share product development information # Platform for innovations, networking, business opportunities # Multi-modal Exhibition 30,000m² # Over 150 speakers from 30+ countries # A special Swiss Day!

www.uitpgeneva2013.org Organiser

Local host

44 Market development

Greece and Bulgaria create multimodal corridor between ports [ by Pamela Luică ]

Greece and Bulgaria are two key European states on the transportation map, ensuring railway, fluvial and maritime connections on the Europe-Asia axis. To increase the traffic flow and implicitly the transit degree, the two countries launch projects to revitalise the infrastructure, the ports being important points in the freight delivery and receipt.

T

herefore, for the purpose of creating a multimodal corridor between the ports of Greece and Bulgaria, in January 2013, the European Union has announced that through the TEN-T programme it grants financing for the elaboration of the feasibility study on the execution of railway connections with a series of fluvial ports in the north-eastern part of Greece and Bulgaria. The total cost of the project reaches EUR 1.5 Million, out of which the EU will finance EUR 750,000 (the studies being covered in a 50% share).

Practically, the project aims at creating a transport corridor on the Aegean SeaBlack Sea-Danube axis. Named “Sea2Sea”, the project will develop the transport corridor concept, by executing connections between the ports of Greece (from the Aegean Sea) to the Bulgarian ones, from the Black Sea through railway links, offering an alternative route to the Bosphorus Strait. In addition, the link between the fluvial ports in the Danube region will also be analysed.

The project should be completed by the end of 2014.

To ensure the railway connection between the ports of the two countries, in March, the company Ergose (the subsidiary of the Greek Railway) initiated the construction works for the line between the port of Alexandroupoli and the Bulgarian ports at the Black Sea. The cost of the project amounts to EUR 4 Million and should be completed within 12 months. Alexandroupoli has become a strategic port, which provides

.11.4

Trade and FDI inflows, percent of GDP

Trade and FDI inflows, percent of GDP Greece

305.4

2,188 0.37

orts

8,104 ,695 1,409 27.12

fast connection to Burgas and Varna and, according to the experts, the cost of the railway transport will be much lower and will reduce the travel time from 2 days to 6 hours.

Greece focuses intensely on the development of the railway infrastructure initiating projects to improve the railway freight transport and to facilitate the connections to the ports. According to the Hellenic Railways Organisation (OSE), the projects to be launched will turn Greece into an important provider for the transport services in southeastern Europe and for the provision of logistics services on the Far East, Balkans, Central and South-Eastern Europe axis.

One of the important projects ensuring the railway connection between the port of Piraeus and the European railway network is the launch of the line (in February 2013) connecting the container terminal of Neo Ikonio (located near the main port of Piraeus), on the Athens-Kiato railway axis, to the railway complex Thriasio, where the main logistics centre of Greece is located. The project of the 17-km line was announced since 2000, but it was constantly interrupted because of financial constraints. According to the company Ergose, the budget of the project reaches EUR 156.6 Million, the financing being ensured by the Cohesion Fund (50%) and by the state budget (50%).

Equally for the infrastructure modernisation, in February, EU announced that it will allocate EUR 1 Million for the elaboration

Trade 90 80

Country World 43

60 60

3 2

40

2

30 20

1 1

0

1996 1996

1998 1998

2000 20022002 2004 20042006 2000

Source: The Global Enabling Trade Report 2012, Published by World Economic Forum

www.railwaypro.com | April 2013

2006 2008

2008 2010

00

Sea2Sea corridor

Source: TEN-T EA

of studies on the completion of the railway line between Athens and Thessaloniki. The funds will be used to perform the hydraulic and structural studies for two sections of the Athens- Aharnes sector. The first section will be 2.3-km long and will be built on the underground starting from the main rail station in Athens. The second section will be 3-km long and will consist of a double track that will go round the centre of Aharnes city.

Greece tries to focus its investment on railway projects and those whose purpose is the insurance of the connections from railway networks to ports, and this objective aims at ameliorating and developing the railway network with ports, with logistics and industrial centres, as well as improving the transport connection to neighbouring states.

Греция и Болгария создают мультимодальный коридор между портами Греция и Болгария - два ключевых европейских государства на транспортной карте, обеспечивая железнодорожные, речные и морские сообщения по оси Европа-Азия. Для увеличения транспортных потоков и, вместе с тем, пропускной способности транзита, две страны начали осуществлять проекты по восстановлению инфраструктуры. Порты являются важными точками поставок и приема грузов.

Market development

45

Constanţa Seaport – a strategic hub for Romania [ by Elena Ilie ]

Over the past decade, the Port of Constanţa has efficiently served the freight flows coming from and going to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, more exactly Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Republic of Moldova, Slovenia, Slovakia, Ukraine and Serbia.

One of the most important projects in terms of railway traffic is represented by the development of the railway capacity in the river-maritime area of the Port of Constanţa. The project consists in the execution of a systematised railway complex in the river-maritime sector of the port of Constanţa which could deliver even services to current and future port operators. The first phase, which is the object of this project, will include works on the railway lines that offer access to current operators based on the traffic forecasts by 2020. The estimated value of the project amounts to EUR 17.6 Million.

port in Europe. The idea was emphasised within a meeting in the same month of April, between the managements of the two European ports. Discussions focused on the topics of the memorandum of understanding concluded between the Port of Constanţa and the Port of Rotterdam, on the identification of common development methods in the field of ship transport and of projects of investments in the port infrastructure. The Dutch party has shown its availability for continuing the collaboration on the development of the port of Constanţa, even for granting financial support to initiate certain projects. The collaboration began based on the Memorandum of 2011, but until the present moment it has not had concrete results.

The Port of Constanţa is located at the crossroads of commercial routes connecting the markets of the Central and Eastern European countries, which are landlocked, to the Transcaucasia Area, Central Asia

and the Far East. It is the main Romanian port and it is in the top of the first 10 European ports. The favourable geographic position and the importance of the Port of Constanţa are emphasised by the connection to two Pan-European Transport Corridors: Corridor VII - Danube (river) and Corridor IV (road and railway). The effect of the container transport performed by line services connecting the Port of Constanţa and the ports of the Far East was the transformation of the Port of Constanţa into a distribution port both for the Black Sea region and for Central and Eastern Europe.

Likewise, the distances between the ports in the Far East and the Port of Constanţa are shorter compared to the distances between them and the North Sea. It is clear that a shorter maritime route and a shorter railway one mean lower transport costs and less time.

Порт Констанцы стратегический узел Румынии

Photo: Club Feroviar

B

eing an important transport hub of TRACECA Corridor, the Port of Constanţa must continue the already started projects for the purpose of consolidating the status of efficient connection in the complex chain of logistics.

The total freight traffic recorded in 2012 in the Romanian maritime ports was 50,584,662 tons, compared to 45,972,095 tons in 2011. Therefore, the traffic increase reached 10%.

In April, the management of the port of Constanţa met a team of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), consisting of specialists in the field of transport project financing. EBRD representatives were interested in the development plans of the Port of Constanţa and in the projects on the improvement of the port infrastructure.

The Port of Constanţa could develop common collaboration projects with the port of Rotterdam, the largest commercial

На протяжении последнего десятилетия Порт Констанцы эффективно обслуживал потоки грузов, поступающие из стран или направляемые в страны Центральной и Восточной Европы, точнее в Австрию, Болгарию, Венгрию, Республику Молдова, Словению, Словакию, Украину и Сербию. Один из важных проектов железнодорожного транспорта - это развитие железнодорожных мощностей в речном и морском участке Порта Констанцы. По предварительным оценкам, стоимость проекта составляет 17,6 миллионов евро.

April 2013 | www.railwaypro.com

46 Market development

Latvia and Kazakhstan see railways as the most viable solution for freight transport

[ by Pamela Luică ]

The representatives of the railway companies in Kazakhstan and Latvia plan to implement joint projects to increase the freight volume in the two countries.

The various meetings between the officials of the two countries have led to the application of measures aimed at increasing cooperation and freight volumes.

D

uring a reunion at the beginning of velop terminals in ports. “Latvia is very interest2012, the representatives of the two ed in attracting a higher volume of goods from companies (KTZand and LDz) have Kazakhstan which couldbygrow to 10-20% of the The regulatory legal rail enactments in Latvia are set forth the European agreed to stimulate the transport activity, a coorperation total volume of transit freight Latvia. A posUnion, while most of the strategic takes place withinRussian, cooperation Belarus, encouraged by and official figures ac- andsibility consider in increasing cargotovolumes Ukraine other Eurasian CentraltoAsian countries that amount cording to which activity be- carried between the two countries would be to allocate nearlythe 95%commercial of the volume of goods on Latvian railways.

These countries tween the two countries recorded a growth of investments in the infrastructure of terminals in also havethe same track gauge as Latvia - 1520 mm.

11% (in 2011) and determined the railway traf- Latvian ports”, declared Berzins. fic growth. Moreover, Kazakhstan, Freight transit volumes between the ports of In freight for transport area, Latvia Latvijasisdzelzceļš cooperates with more than 3800 an importantcustomers element in the transit policies on stevedores the two countries have increased gradually berepresenting cargo owners, and forwarding organisations. exports to the Baltic Region. tween the two countries; for example, in 2011, Due to the special interest in railway transport the transit of freight from Kazakhstan increased and logistics,COMPOSITION Kazakhstan Railways by 3.4% DIFFERENT and in 2012 by COUNTRIES 4.1%. “We would want OFannounced FREIGHT FROM their intention ofIMPORT opening anAND officeLAND in Latvia, a the Kazakh side to invest in the Latvian ports IN TRANSIT ROUTES measure that would contribute to the intensifi- through which freight from Kazakhstan could cation of contacts and to the rapid resolution of be transported. For example, the port of Riga is railway communications problems. In addition, important because it has a strategic geographi4.1% declared LDz President Ugis Mathe two companies have0.5% signed a protocol on cal position”, Estonia 3.7% play an important role in the the organisation of container trains from ChinaBelarus gonis. Railways to Europe, via Kazakhstan and Latvia and the 18.2%transport of freight between the two countries 4.1% Latvian side has Kazakhstan expressed its interest in devel- and “the development of railway services will oping the “Khorgos East Gate” project. 2.8% significantly facilitate economic cooperation”, A year after establishing the measures, the said Latvian Ministry of Transport Aivis Ronis Lithuania 3.7% freight volume carried between Kazakhstan in February 2013 during a meeting with KTZ and Latvia increased by 21% reaching 3.4 President. “We see Latvia as a potential destiUkraine 1.0% million tonnes, with export through Latvia nation forRussia investments especially for the deve69.4% increased by 28% and the volume of imports lopment of railway transport because time in Uzbekistanincreased 0.3% from Latvia to Kazakhstan by 60%. freight delivery is a key factor for customers and Figures clearly show the necessity of devel- the time necessary for transport from China to oping new opportunities for increasing freight Kazakhstan, Russia and Latvia and from here Others 2.8% traffic. KTZ President Askar Mamin and Latvi- to the rest of Europe is three times shorter than an President Andris Berzins agreed at the be- by sea”, said Mamin. ginning of 2013 to implement projects aimed The freight from Kazakhstan ranks 4th for to boost freight volumes from Kazakh ports to LDz, only 4.1% (2.43 million tonnes) of the Latvian ports and to attract investments to de- cargo volume of LDz Cargo in 2012 and the

2010

Composition of Freight from Different Countries in Import and Land Transit Routes

3.4%

Estonia 0.4% Belarus 21.3%

Kazakhstan 3.4% Lithuania 3.7% Ukraine 0.9% Uzbekistan 0.2% Others 2.6% Source: Latvijas dzelzceļš (Annual report-2011)

www.railwaypro.com | April 2013

3.7%

2.6%

Russia 67.5%

2011

company plans to attract a much higher volume of freight. Also, one of the traditional cooperation segments is the transit of grains from Kazakhstan to Europe via Latvia, said the President of the Grain Union, Nurlan Tleubayev. He declared that the volume of grains will be increased and will serve directly the port of Ventspils. Moreover, the authorities also consider increasing the transit of NATO freight on the east-west axis, as Kazakhstan supports Latvia in NATO transports.

EXPORT FREIGHT VOLUME PROPORTION BY DESTINATION COUNTRIES Export freight volume proportion by IN 2011

destination countries in 2011 3.17%

Lithuania 3.17%

6.23% Other countries 18.99%

Estonia 16.76%

Kazakhstan 6.23% Ukraine 1.71%

Belarus 10.00%

Russia 43.14%

2011 IMPORT FREIGHT VOLUME PROPORTION

Латвия и COUNTRIES Казахстан

BY DISPATCHING IN 2011 считают железную дорогу наиболее жизнеспособным решением для Estonia 0.23% осуществления грузовых Lithuania 2.25% перевозок Kazakhstan 3.69% 3.69%

Belarus 19.32%

Russia Ukraine 0.69% Представители железнодорожных 73.38% компаний Казахстана и Латвии Other countries 0.44% намереваются осуществить совместные проекты, направленные на увеличение объема грузовых перевозок между двумя государствами. Многочисленные встречи официальных лиц двух стран способствовали внедрению ряда мероприятий и установлению других мероприятий, нацеленных на повышение степени сотрудничества и увеличение 2 объема перевозимых грузов. Железные дороги представляют собой наиболее жизнеспособным решением для осуществления грузовых перевозок, а транзит грузов через эти две страны крайне эффективен: например, время пребывания в пути товаров из Китая через Казахстан, Россию и Латвию в Европу в три раза короче по железной дороге по сравнению с морским транспортом.

2011

0

1

Market development

47

Belarus prioritises the development of logistics [ by Pamela Luică ]

Belarus is located on the crossroads of the trade routes on the Russia – Western Europe and Black Sea – Baltic Sea axes, which encourages the continuous development of the infrastructure and of logistics centres. For this purpose, the authorities announced that in the next years over USD 1 Billion will be allocated to implement the logistics centres development strategy.

port).

The complex will have an area of 200 thousand square meters (as storage facilities) and 50 thousand square meters for the construction of different buildings (including office buildings, spaces for exhibitions, etc). In order to complete the project, works have been divided into two phases, the centre being totally commissioned this year.

This centre is one of the projects to determine the increase of the transport activity, but also the connectivity optimisation, the provisions of integrated services and last but not least the improvement of the investment environment and of the competitiveness. In this regard, the authorities elaborate new measures for the creation of the conditions on the operations efficiency in the national logistics centres, facilitating the conditions for the applicants which need licenses. photo: www.prilesie.com

total area of A class storage facilities that are to be constructed by 2015 reaching more than 700,000 square meters.

Belarus has already commissioned 11 logistics centres among which Brest-Beltamozhservice, Minsk- Beltamozhservice, BLT-Logistic, OAO Ozertso-Logistic, BelVingesLogistic, SHATE-M Plus, OOO Twenty Four, OAO Belmagistralautotrans, Brestvneshtrans, Minsk-Kristal and OOO InterStroiPortal Plus.

An additional land plot as large as 19.1 hectares in Brest Oblast was earmarked to expand the service area of the cargo handling terminal Kozlovichi-2 and to offer a wide range of associated services and, at present, programmes are being implemented to increase quality at European standards. In particular, the logistics centre Prilesie (strategically located in the FEZ of Minsk) is aimed at, the largest logistics centre under construction in Belarus, which is implemented by Iranian investors. The centre offers easy access to road transport (both national and European corridors), railways (having access to the railway stations in the region) and air-borne transport (with access to Minsk International Air-

Белоруссия уделяет приоритетное внимание развитию сектора логистики

photo: www.belarus.by

T

he geographic position of Belarus, between the EU and CIS states, offers huge opportunities for investors as regards the implementation of projects in the logistics sector. In addition, in order to improve the business environment and to facilitate investments, Belarus has created the Free Economic Zone (FEZ) in Minsk, Brest and other regions (there are 6 such zones), which offer a series of benefits to companies and to private investors.

In order to consolidate the strategic position on the transport map, the authorities are determined to make efforts for the purpose of developing the logistics network, by building logistics centres and developing the railway transport, including railway terminals. Therefore, at the beginning of the year, the government announced that it plans to allocate massive investments by 2015 for the optimisation of the logistics sector.

According to the development programme established for the next years, Belarus initiates the implementation of 48 investment projects amounting to USD 380 Million, and the total investments will constantly increase to USD 1 Billion (by 2015), the

Белоруссия расположена на пересечении торговых путей по осям Россия - Западная Европа и Черное море - Балтийское море, что призывает к непрерывному развитию инфраструктуры и логистических центров. В этой связи, власти объявили, что в ближайшие годы будет выделено более 1 млрд. долларов для реализации стратегии развития логистических центров.

April 2013 | www.railwaypro.com

48 Market development

Modal shift facilitated through the development of dry ports [ by Elena Ilie ]

In order to integrate regional transport networks in Asia, all transport links (including railway, road and waterway) and transport nodes (including seaports, dry ports and intermodal interfaces) need to be fully developed, said the experts in the area who analysed the importance of the development of dry ports along the Trans-Asian Railway Network (TAR). development of railway transport, of intermodal transport and of long-distance container freight transport, as well as the development of dry ports and has received the government’s support for that.

The Iranian Minister of Urban Development Ahmad Sadeqi declared that the authorities are planning to invest in the development of the railway network in order to reach a total length of 20,000 km. At present, 10,000 km of line are operational.

The Port of Astara is also a strategic hub in Iran, being also part of the North-South Corridor. It is located in the Iranian province of Gilan and could be inaugurated as Iran’s first private port at the end of the Iranian year.

A dock with a capacity of 600 thousand tonnes could be soon finalized and the port also has a dry port. The loading and unloading capacity is estimated at 2.5 million tonnes. The port is built through a joint venture of the state and the private sector. So far, USD 20.4 Million were invested in this project aimed to facilitate trade between Caspian Sea countries.

Ataollah Sadr, Managing Director of

Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organisation, said that Iran had 14 ports of which four, including Astara, at the Caspian Sea. In 2009, Iranian Shipping and KAVEH signed a contract for the construction of a new port in the city of Astara (at the border with Azerbaijan). The contract is in force for 40 years and the construction of the port should be realized in about 6 years.

Photo: www.tmhtrade.com

I

ran benefits from sea ports linked to the national railway network and through the development of the North-South Corridor, the state will benefit from the connection of Bandar – Abbas Port to the international railway network.

Iran also has dry ports, the first and one of the most important being Aprin terminal, located 21 km south-west of Tehran capital. Aprin dry terminal is also strategically located at the junction of rail corridors East-West and North-South. It stretches on a surface of 100 hectares and has 110 cargo storage facilities, as well as different container storage capacities.

Aprin terminal continues to develop as new cargo handling and storage systems are currently in construction. The dry terminal serves both Tehran and its adjacent industrial regions, the annual average of handled goods reaching 5,000 TEUs. The goods are shipped by rail to Aprin terminal and then loaded and shipped to the Iranian seaports Imam and Shahid Rjaee. The terminal will also dispose of a facility for the repair of locomotives.

Over the past years, Iran has stressed the

Photo: www.tmhtrade.com

Модальный обмен, которому способствует развитие сухопутных портов

www.railwaypro.com | April 2013

В целях интеграции региональных транспортных сетей в Азии, все транспортные маршруты (в том числе железнодорожные, автомобильные и водные) и транспортные узлы (в том числе морские порты, сухопутные порты и интермодальные связи) должны быть полностью развитыми. Так считают эксперты отрасли, которые проанализировали важность развития сухопутных портов вдоль Трансазиатской железнодорожной сети (ТЖС).

Policies & Strategies

49

Compensations for private operators investing in port infrastructure [ by Elena Ilie ]

tunity to develop their projects in the Ukrainian ports in conformity with the concession terms and conditions, “one of the most efficient forms of cooperation between the state and the business sector being one of the best global practices.

This has made possible the introduction of changes in the legislation on the state’s properties that could be put in concession”, informs the official web site of the Ukrainian Government.

Therefore, according to the adopted amendments, companies can provide services on the infrastructure of all the 18 ports that can become object of the concession. “Consequently, several projects can be delivered in concession in each of Ukraine’s ports”, the press release informs.

According to experts, PPP projects are the most important for the development of ports and thus several countries, such as Russia, Georgia, Latvia, Belgium and the Netherlands, are implementing such projects with private investors.

This March, Ukraine announced it

Photo: static.worldmaritimenews.com

P

otrstrategy.com informs that, a proper legislation is necessary for this measure to be valid and the Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure is already elaborating this legislation. According to a draft normative act, the investors interested in the port infrastructure will have to submit a business plan, to ask for the opinion of experts regarding the potential investment and their financial capacity will be rigorously checked.

Therefore, the 18 ports owned by the Ukrainian state can benefit from private infrastructure investments. Compensations will be granted by the state to private operators if investments will remain in the property of the state.

Moreover, the law of maritime ports which stipulates the privatisation of Ukrainian ports could become effective in June 2013, which, experts say, could create new port terminals or, under the concession law, even new ports could be developed.

Private investors will have the oppor-

Photo: www.uz.gov.ua

This March Ukraine announced the launch of the reform on the development strategy of ports. One of the most important aspects of Kiev authorities’ strategy consists in granting compensations to private operators who decide to invest in the development of the port infrastructure.

planned to increase investments in the development of the port industry by UAH 25 Billion (EUR 2.37 Billion) until 2017. The announcement was made by the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure, Dmytro Demydovych, quoted by interfax.com.ua. According to him, the ministry he represents estimates an increase by 50 million tonnes in the flow of goods transiting the Ukrainian ports by 2017. The volumes would thus increase to 203 million tonnes of freight.

Demydovych added that the state’s investments in the 18 ports it manages in 2012 amounted to UAH 1.7 Billion (EUR 161.5 Million), notable investments of which port infrastructures have also benefited.

Компенсации для частных операторов, которые инвестируют в портовую инфраструктуру В марте этого года Украина объявила о запуске реформы стратегии развития портов. Один из наиболее важных аспектов стратегии киевских властей состоит в предоставлении компенсаций частным операторам, принимающих решение инвестировать средства в портовую инфраструктуру.

April 2013 | www.railwaypro.com

50 Market development

“Viking Train” and “Cargo 10”

Two projects with significant potential in attracting freight to railways

[ by Pamela Luică ]

• More and more companies are interested to participate in the projects • Founding companies apply measures to facilitate border crossing procedures • Plans to expand the geographical area to include as many countries as possible

R

ailway companies are interested in stimulating freight transport not only by launching new services, but also by making joint efforts aimed to increase traffic performance. In Europe, several companies have decided to perform common projects on traffic efficiency by simplifying border crossing procedures and harmonizing administrative formalities. The success of these projects is proved by the continuous growth of freight volumes and, consequently, together with founding companies, many countries are more and more interested in participating to joint projects.

Ten years after the launch of the freight transport service “Viking Train”, the volume of carried freight has increased 100 times reaching 58.9 TEUs and the success of this service has been proved not only by the continuous growth of transport, but also by the intention of member companies of expanding the geographical area of the service.

In 2002, the railway companies in Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania signed an agreement on the organisation of operating and organisational aspects of railway transport

between the three countries and a year later the transport service was launched.

The main condition for the development of freight transport, as part of the project, was the optimisation of technology, the facilitation of procedures for releasing papers, customs control and building an attractive tariff policy.

Cooperation between interested parties has determined the creation of discussion platforms between transport ministries, railway companies, customs and border authorities in Belarus, Lithuania, Turkey, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Syria, Bulgaria and Greece in order to facilitate the transport of freight across borders for Viking member states. Another objective of this project is to attract freight to railways on the axis Europe-Caucasus-Asia and freight from Turkey and Middle East to Northern Europe (and vice-versa). Moreover, in order to increase freight volumes, railway companies in the three countries that have initiated the project have extended the tariff conditions, unchanged since 2008, for the first half of 2013.

Corridor X

www.railwaypro.com | April 2013

Apart from transport effectiveness, from facilitating the entire border-crossing process to the organisation of train and stop points, the development of the service doesn’t only mean optimisation of services and launching of new services, but also geographical expansion.

“We benefit from all the levers necessary to traffic development, including adequate infrastructure, experience and modern technology. Moreover, there are plans according to which the route should expand to connect the Black Sea to the Baltic Sea”, declared Alexander Stankevich, Operations Manager of Belarus Railways.

During a reunion of the railway operators and the railway managers in Belarus, Lithuania and Ukraine, the parties have approached the problem of developing the service by covering a larger geographical area. Therefore, the participants proposed expanding the “Viking” operations to the Republic of Moldova and Bulgaria in order to attract freight from Russia (especially from Kaliningrad region), the delivery of freight and supply of heavy container transport services. Several months after the initiation of talks on the expansion proposals, BDZ Freight Services operator has become member of the Viking project, the decision being adopted as part of a meeting (of December 2012) between the representatives of the railway managers in Belarus, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Bulgaria. This decision will ensure the best of conditions for the transport of freight to Bulgaria and for increasing the volumes of carried freight.

In March 2013, the press agency in Belarus (BelTA) announced that Viking freight container transport service could be expanded to Turkey, the decision of including Turkey in the network served by Viking trains being made after Bulgaria (already included) and Romania have announced their plans of joining the project. The same reunion which concluded in the accession of Turkey to the project was also attended by delegates from Sweden interested in Viking to ship car body parts to Russia. The Viking project consists in the transport of freight in the Black Sea Region, Africa and America, Middle East and Asia. The train includes platform for heavy containers, special platforms for the

Market development

Viking Train

Source: www.vikingtrain.com

transport of cars and passenger coaches for the drivers. The total length of the route is of 1,766 km on the axis Iljichevsk/Odessa (Ukraine) –Berezhest (Ukraine) - Slovechno (Belarus)-Minsk-Gudogai (Belarus) – Kena (Lithuania)-Klaipeda (Lithuania).

freight volumes, reduce costs and the travel time: from Serbia (Paraćin) to Sežana (Slovenian border with Italy), the time will be reduced by 10h which will also make possible the increase of the number of trains from 1,000 to 2,000. The advantages provided by Cargo 10 have awaken the interest of other companies Bosnia Herzegovina, Srpska Republic, Montenegro and Macedonia expressing their participation interest immediately after the establishment of the transport service. However, it is possible that the three founding countries would include the Bulgarian transport companies as members seeking opportunities for partnerships with Greece and Turkey.

In March 2013, Slovenian Railways announced that it was possible to include Italian Railways in Cargo 10 in order to join their efforts for a plus of quality and competitiveness. The offer could also expand to

Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia want to boost freight traffic Another project which stipulates the simplification of border-crossing procedures and the harmonisation of administrative formalities for reducing the freight travel time is “Cargo 10”. In order to make railway traffic on Corridor X effective, the railway companies in Croatia (HZ), Slovenia (SJ) and Serbia (SZ) have decided to set up the Cargo 10 Company. An intense and coordinated cooperation between railway companies and customs services will help increase

Intermodal Freight Transportation Corridor BALTIC SEA – BLACK SEA FINLAND

DE N

ea Ba l

DENMARK

2

Container train VIKING Corridor “EAST-WEST”

tic S

S WE

NOR W

AY

Intermodal Freight Transportation Corridor - BALTIC SEA – BLACK SEA

Klaipơda

POLAND

ESTONIA

RAIL BALTIC

LATVIA LITHUANIA

Moscow TransSiberian Railroad Kazakhstan China

Vilnius Minsk

BELARUS

GERMANY

Kiev

UKRAINE Odessa Ilyichevsk

Black Sea

GEORGIA

TURKEY Source: Lithuanian Railways

SC “LITHUANIAN RAILWAYS”

51

Macedonia.

The discussions between the representatives of Serbian Railways, Slovenia and Croatia have established the necessity to boost traffic in order to shift freight volumes from roads to railways (carried on Corridor X). In this context, over the next months Serbian Railways will elaborate proposals for consolidating traffic and the activities of Cargo 10 that will be then harmonised by groups of experts from the three countries.

The promotion of the joint offer for the international freight traffic will take place in June. “Serbian Railways will carry out organisational and normative activities to significantly reduce time through Serbia. Only by reducing time for customs procedures will we be capable to reduce travel time by several hours. Also, an improved organisation of traffic within Cargo 10 will help us deliver an efficient transport service”, declared the company’s general manager Dragoljub Simonovic.

Moreover, Serbia has committed to apply measures to accelerate the overhaul of freight cars so as to carry goods for Slovenian customers.

The representatives of the two railway companies have agreed with the joint services so as to increase the competitiveness of international traffic and the traffic speed. In order to reach these objectives, Cargo 10 will have to launch offers to answer to the customers’ requirements, to reduce travel time and the time the trains spend at borders for customs procedures. Moreover, the joint venture will have to carry out all administrative formalities by itself without intermediaries.

Поезд «Викинг» и «Карго 10» Два проекта со значительным потенциалом для привлечения грузов на железнодорожный транспорт Железнодорожные компании заинтересованы интенсифицировать перевозки грузов, не только путем запуска новых услуг, но и с помощью совместных усилий по повышению эффективности работы транспорта. В Европе ряд компаний осуществили выбор в пользу проведения совместных проектов, направленных на упорядочение движения путем упрощения процедур пересечения границ и согласования административных формальностей. Успех этих проектов доказан постоянным ростом объемов грузовых перевозок и, как следствие, наряду с компаниямиоснователями, многие государства начинают проявлять все более яркий интерес к участию в совместных проектах.

April 2013 | www.railwaypro.com

52 Policies & Strategies

Baku – Tbilisi – Kars, new Europe-Asia corridor. Will Armenia join it? [ by Elena Ilie ]

The decision of granting access to transit the Baku – Tbilisi – Kars rail corridor to third countries will be set through a consensus of the countries involved in the project, declared recently Teimuraz Sharashenidze, the Georgian Ambassador to Azerbaijan. “Many countries are interested in this project, but the decision of granting access pertains to the three countries”, said Sharashenidze adding that there is no dispute between his country, Azerbaijan and Turkey regarding the Baku – Tbilisi – Kars project.

H

owever, it seems that Georgia and Azerbaijan are against allowing Armenia to access the rail corridor. Azerbaijan’s Minister of Transport Ziya Mammadov has been very clear in saying that Armenia cannot use the Baku – Tbilisi – Kars corridor without Azerbaijan’s permission.

The declaration has been made after a reunion of the transport ministers and has answered the declaration of the Armenian Deputy Minister of Transport Artashes Avetisyan who said that “Armenia would like to use the railway line Baku – Tbilisi – Kars in the future, if possible”, the Azerbaijani press informs.

Although not long ago Turkey used to be clearly against any participation in the BTK project from Armenia, now the country says it has proposed Armenia to be part of the complex regional transport projects which link Europe to Asia, but only if there are concrete solutions to the conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The proposal has been presented to the Minsk Group of OSCE (group created to lead OSCE’s efforts towards identifying a potential solution to the conflict in the Nagorno-

Karabakh region, between Armenia and Azerbaijan).

“In November 2012, we presented the Project on Integrated Transport Corridors to the Minsk Group. The project has to be implemented in peace times and especially after Armenia will retreat from the seven occupied regions which border the Nagorno-Karabakh region. We propose the full normalisation of the connections between Turkey and Armenia and Armenia and Azerbaijan”, declared Turkish diplomats for Hürriyet Daily News. The Turkish newspaper also informs that the transport project comprises two phases. On the one hand, it focuses on the connection TurkeyArmenia-Azerbaijan-Russian Federation through the modernisation of the railways currently not used, but also through the construction of new ones. Next to the Baku – Tbilisi – Kars project, a new Turkey-Armenia link could be reopened only with small infrastructure rehabilitation works.

Considering the economic perspectives and the strategic importance of the exterior area of the Caucasus, the Turkish project also approaches the need to connect the countries in this region to Europe and Asia.

Baku – Tbilisi – Kars map

SOURCE: wikipedia.org

www.railwaypro.com | April 2013

Transit between Europe and Asia will soon be possible with the completion of Marmaray project and of the Baku – Tbilisi – Kars railway, while the normalisation of the political situation in the region (Armenia’s retreat from the occupied Azerbaijani territories) would also allow Armenia to join the strategic development projects, say sources close to the project.

Well-known for its reservation regarding a potential Turkish-Armenian reconciliation, Azerbaijan has been informed by Turkey about the content of the project. “Azerbaijan knows what we want. We’ve made it clear that this project will be implemented only after Armenia shows its willingness to re-establish peace in the area”, underlined sources from Azerbaijan.

However, Armenia has remained indifferent to the project proposed by Turkey so far and has not sent an official reaction through the Minsk Group. According to the latest data, the Baku – Tbilisi – Kars railway will be fully commissioned in 2014.

Баку – Тбилиси – Карс новый коридор Европа – Азия. Армения тоже «в счет»? Несмотря на то, что некоторое время тому назад Турция явно сопротивлялась включению Армении в какой-либо проект, связанный с БТК, Турция предложила Армении участвовать в обширных проектах регионального транспорта, обеспечивающих сообщения между Европой и Азией, но только если будут предприниматься конкретные действия в сторону разрешения Нагорнокарабахского конфликта. Предложение было представлено Минской группе ОБСЕ (группа была создана для направления усилий ОБСЕ на поиски возможного разрешения Нагорнокарабахского конфликта между Арменией и Азербайджаном - прим. ред.).

Policies & Strategies

53

Number of cargo trains using CIM/SMGS increases [ by Elena Ilie ] -3-

Shipping freight by railways between Europe, Russia and Asia has a significant transport However, only 2.4 Scenario 1 – potential.

Bilateral ECN data exchange 1% of this potential is exploited at present, says the International Rail Transport Committee (CIT).

2.4.1 Example

All informational messages (grey arrows) have been agreed upon in bilateral contrac carriers.

L

2.4.1.1

ong-distance transport using the common CIM/SMGS consignment note is more and more attractive, especially due to the reduced time spent in traffic and environment protection reasons, as well as the contractual responsibility for the shipped cargo.

CIT data show that the common CIM/ SMGS consignment note is used for more than fifty traffic flows over four TEN corridors, three quarters of this traffic consists of containers, at less than 5% single wagonload traffic plays a minor role. The use of the common CIM/SMGS consignment note leads to a saving of some forty minutes per wagon or eight to ten hours in the total transit time of a train. Discontinuing the transcription of CIM and SMGS consignment notes provides a saving of some EUR 40 per consignment.

Within the project to make the CIM and SMGS consignment notes legally interoperable, the International Rail Transport Committee (CIT) and the Organisation for Cooperation of Railways (OSJD) are accordingly working as fast as they can on the implementation of a comprehensive contractual framework to allow these new traffics to be moved simply in administrative terms but with complete legal certainty. The CIT and OSJD are coordinating

Freight Traffic Situation on July 2011

• • •

their work closely with UNECE. consignment note exceeds the 85% share for At the beginning of the year, the Work- railway container transport and amounts to ing Group of the CIT and OSJD met and over 18% for single wagon loads. the members of the two organizations have 2.4.1.2 Dataflow process Dataflow process presented new information on the uniform Diagram application of CIM/SMGS. Therefore, the statistical data presented by Russian Railways and Ukrainian Railways and published by CIT show that the use of CIM/ SMGS has tripled, so the growing tendency continued in 2012. As regards its use in railway operations, according to the information provided by RZD, around 28,000 CIM/SMGS consignment notes were used in the first 10 months of last year.

DB Schenker Rail Germany announced that it will analyse in 2013 together with Belarus Railways and Russian Railways the possibility to introduce CIM/SMGS as part of the Trans Eurasia Logistic (TEL) project for the cargo shipped to Kunzevo II. It is also important to mention that Russian Railways Logistics together with its subsidiary YuXinOu (Chongqing) Logistics launched the first container train between China and Europe that uses the common CIM/SMGS consignment note Source: Technical specifications for theDiagram Electronic2CIM/SMGS Consignment - Note, CIT, UIC, OSJD in October 2012.

According to the data for 2012 supplied by CIT and OSJD members and published on Все больше грузовых the web site of CIT, the use of CIM/SMGS

поездов использует систему CIM/SMGS

Freight Traffic Situation on July 2011

Перевозки товаров по железной дороге между Европой, Россией и Азией имеют огромный потенциал развития. Несмотря на это, по данным Международного транспортного комитета (МТК) в настоящее время используется лишь 1% от этого потенциала. Осуществление перевозок на дальние расстояния с использованием единой товарно-транспортной накладной CIM/SMGS становится все более привлекательным, в основном по причине сокращения времени пребывания в пути и по соображениям, связанным с охраной окружающей среды и с договорной ответственностью за перевозимые грузы.

SMGS CIM CIM + SMGS Source: www.cit-rail.org 18.04.2011

Assumption

Contractual carrier is the first carrier Subcontractor is receiving a subset of the ECN from his orderer.

Due to the existence of a subcontractor in the transport only the direction CI possible.

1

April 2013 | www.railwaypro.com

The growth in EU port activity in 2011 was mainly 3 501 3 696 4 479 4 884 Bremerhaven (DE) due to increased movement 156 2 415 2 615 3of 049 Valencia (ES) volumes in 2inward 970 3 184 Despite in the3 262gross3 420 Algeciras (ES)the annual StatisticS increases 54goods.

3 170 ports 3 123following 2 835 3 the 464 Gioia Tauro (IT) handled

in EU weight of goods 2 717 2 760 3 030 3 342 Felixstow e (UK)

economic downturn, overall port activity in the EU (3)

(3)

4 552for this 4 858 fall is 501a reduction 5 911 reason in754the +21.7% numbers+50.4% of 3 654 4 211 945 952 +3.0% passengers embarking and4 338disembarking in Italy+0.7% 3 298 2 953 2 777 472 3 584 769 +29.1% +62.9% and Greece, the EUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s two3 307 leading 367 countries for -21.1% 3 165 2 725 3 897 465 -15.1% seaborne transport 3 131 3 021 passenger 3 415 915 3 249 (Table 829 6). -4.9% -9.4% 5 451

3 606

2 158 144 2 119 2 685 2 512 2 257 2 369 377 2 222 -6.2% -6.4% Le Havre (FR)

The total weight of goods handled in 2EU ports is estimated at 3.7 billion tonnes in 2011, a rise of 1.7 %353 compared with 2010.

2 084 2 071 2 315 2 606 2 565 1 846 1 928 453 2 006 Barcelona (ES)

)LJXUH *URVV ZHLJKW RI VHDERUQH JRRGV KDQGOHG LQ DOO SRUWV LQ PLOOLRQ WRQQHV

517

+4.0%

+14.2%

290

+97.7%

+48.2%

1 591

472

+1.5%

273

1 284

352

1 181

170

1 205

203

+2.1%

+19.3%

1 437

264

1 157

236

-19.4%

-10.5%

943

1 031

149

1 095

143

+6.2%

-3.8%

864

824

1 230

1 462

1 311

891 189 914 189 +2.5% -0.3% 4XDUWHUO\ UHVXOWV IRU DQG LQ (8 PDLQ SRUWV 1JURZWK UDWH RQ WKH VDPH TXDUWHU RI WKH SUHYLRXV \HDU

020 14 910 0 -10.8% -99.0%

858

983

646

219

737

249

+0.6%

+13.6%

95

183

233

87

685

183

+34.3%

+110.2%

9 523

67 957

10 405

+11.4%

+9.3%

13 737

87 286

14 948

+11.4%

+8.8%

(3)

Piraeus (EL)

Gross1 551 weight of 1 401

Southampton (UK)

1 435

1 384

1 502

1 905

1 617

1 385

1 567

447

Las Palmas (ES)

1 111

1 222

1 303

1 319

1 312

1 006

1 118

La Spezia (IT)

879

916

1 086

1 130

1 186

840

Zeebrugge (BE)

458

682

895

1 191

1 401

1 467

Marseille (FR)

920

911

950

1 058

901

3 000

GĂśteborg (SE)

722

772

812

841

1 437

1 038

1 146

966

765

743

18

63

76

4 000

3 500

Genova (IT)

London (GB)

Gdansk (PL)

2 500

(3)

7RWDO WRS SRUWV

2(($ ,6 +5 P 000 DLQ SRUWV

seaborne handled in all ports (in million 1 413 1goods 384 437 667 850 195 1 tonnes) 681

9%733 6% 510 3% 47 352 53 032 57 003 64 491 64 495 54 312 610%012 -3% 61 616 69 463 74 400 83 858 82 922 70 408 78 -6%333 -9% -12% of positions lost or gained compared to 2009 -15% Unit (unit of volume equivalent to a 20 foot ISO container).

-18%

* This column indicates the number 1 500 TEU = Twenty-foot Equivalent (1) Q1 (2) Partial data up to 2nd quarter 2004.

(3) Data for 2004 are underestimated.

1 000 (4) Total1997 figure for top 20 ports year 1998the ports 1999being part 2000 of the2001 2002 during 2003 the reference 2004 2005 concerned.

2006 Source: Eurostat (online data code: mar_mg_am_pvh)

EU-27

Q2

Q3

Q4

+5.6%

+14.9%

Q1

Q2

2010

Q3

+29.0%

Q4

2011

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

EU-15

SOURCE: : Eurostat, Publish Date MARCH, 2013

Source: Eurostat (onlineyear-on-year data codes: mar_mg_aa_cwh and activity mar_go_qm) There were continued increases in EU port in the first three quarters of 2011. However, this recovery came to an 0DS 0DLQ ([WUD (8 SDUWQHU UHJLRQV LQ E\ JURVV ZHLJKW RI JRRGV KDQGOHG end in the fourth quarter of 2011, interrupting a pattern of growth which goes back to the first quarter of 2010.

Main Extra-EU-27 partner regions in Inland 2011transport by gross weightto of goods continues reflect weakhandled domestic demand in the EU area. EU road

freight declined to 11% below the pre-crisis peak and rail freight volume was 13% below pre-crisis levels in Q2/12. Rail freight volume in the USA also shows signs of a slowdown. Growth in Russia has been stronger with rail freight volumes reaching 2% above the pre-crisis peak (Figures 7-8).

Figure 1. External trade, percentage change from pre-crisis peak Jun-08 (Tonnes and current values, monthly trend, seasonally adjusted) USA, exports and imports by sea (tonnes)

USA trade by sea, total (tonnes)

USA trade by sea, ($)

Total Exports

Export s Imports

Imports

8% 7% Ͳ5%

Ͳ16%

Jul-08

Ͳ5%

Ͳ10%

Ͳ13%

Aug-12

Ĺš Inland freight remains weak in EU

USA, exports and imports by sea (tonnes)

USA trade by sea, total (tonnes)

8%

Ͳ13%

Ͳ36%

Jul-08

Aug-12

Aug-12

4%

3%

7%

Aug-12

Ͳ37%

Jul-08

Aug-12

EU27 trade by air, total (tonnes)

EU27 trade by sea, (â&#x201A;Ź)

Export s Imports

Ͳ21% Aug-12

Jul-08

35% 15%

Aug-12

Jul-08

EU27 trade by air, (â&#x201A;Ź)

Total Exports

Export s Imports

Imports 23%

14% 5%

Ͳ5%

EU27, exports and imports by air (tonnes)

Total Exports

USA trade by air, ($)

9%

Ͳ18%

Ͳ19%

Aug-12

Jul-08

EU27, exports and imports by sea (tonnes)

Total Exports

4%

Ͳ2%

Ͳ16%

Ͳ22%

Aug-12

Jul-08

Imports

External trade, percentage change from pre-crisis peak Jun-08

Jul-08

6

Aug-12

Export s Imports

Ͳ5%

EU27 trade by sea, total (tonnes)

Jul-08

USA, exports and imports by air (tonnes)

USA trade by air, total (tonnes)

8%

Ͳ16%

Ͳ4%

Ͳ8%

Imports

Ͳ10%

35%

Ͳ19%

Jul-08

Source: Eurostat â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Maritime transport â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Goods (mar_go) Ͳ5%

Imports

Ͳ2%

Ͳ5%

USA trade by sea, ($)

SOURCE: : Eurostat, Publish Date MARCH, 2013

Aug-12

EU27 trade by sea, (â&#x201A;Ź)

Total Exports 23%

Total Exports

Export s Imports

Ͳ37% Jul-08

Export s Imports

Ͳ15%

Figure 1. External trade, percentage change from pre-crisis peak Jun-08 (Tonnes and current values, monthly trend, seasonally adjusted)

Aug-12

EU27, exports and imports by sea (tonnes)

EU27 trade by sea, total (tonnes)

Inland transport continues to reflect weak domestic demand in the EU area. EU road freight declined to 11% below the pre-crisis peak and rail freight volume was 13% below pre-crisis levels in Q2/12. Rail freight volume in the USA also shows signs of a slowdown. Growth in Russia has been stronger with rail freight volumes reaching 2% above the pre-crisis peak (Figures 7-8).

Ͳ16%

Ͳ22%

Jul-08

Imports

7/2013 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Statistics in focus 12%

34% 15%

8% Ͳ2%

Ͳ5%

Ͳ5%

Ͳ4%

Ͳ8%

Ͳ15%

Ͳ19%

Jul-08

Aug-12

Jul-08

Aug-12

Ͳ6%

Ͳ20%

Ͳ36% Aug-12

Jul-08

Jul-08

Ͳ11%

Ͳ25% Aug-12

Jul-08

Aug-12

Jul-08

Aug-12

SOURCE: : ITF, 2012 USA, exports and imports by air (tonnes)

USA trade by air, total (tonnes)

Total Exports

Export s Imports

USA trade by air, ($)

The latest update of global freight data collected by the International Transport Forum at the OECD shows global trade volumes are slowing down. Total external trade by sea (in tonnes) has remained stagnant below pre-crisis levels in EU27 (-2%) according to ITF seasonally adjusted preliminary estimates of goods carried until August 2012. Exports and imports by sea display different patterns. Total exports remain above pre-crisis levels (EU27 23%) although exports to Asia show signs of slowing down. Total imports have stagnated below pre-crisis levels.

Imports

4%

3%

Ͳ18%

Aug-12

Ͳ21%

Aug-12

Jul-08

EU27 trade by air, total (tonnes) EU27, exports and imports by air www.railwaypro.com | April 2013 (tonnes)

Export s Imports

14%

5%

Ͳ5%

Ͳ19%

Jul-08

9%

4%

Ͳ2%

Aug-12

Jul-08

EU27 trade by air, (â&#x201A;Ź)

Total Exports

Imports

Ĺš Inla freig rem wea

0DS 0DLQ (XURSHDQ FDUJR SRUWV LQ E\ JURVV ZHLJKW RI JRRGV KDQGOHG StatisticS

55

Main European cargo ports in 2011(1) by gross weight of goods handled

Figure 6. China external seaborne and airborne trade by regions (Tonnes, year to date: Jan – Aug 2012)

China external by sea (Tonnes, YTD Aug-12) North America 13.0% Middle East 2.4% LATAM 3.7%

China external by air (Tonnes, YTD Aug-12)

Af rica 2.4% Middle East & LATAM 0.9%

North America 13.9%

Af rica 1.7%

Europe 9.6% Europe 24.1%

Asia Pacif ic 68.9%

Asia Pacif ic 59.4%

Note: Data above represents partial China’s external trade in weight tonnes given that 16% of commodities by HS codes are not measured in weight. These are mainly commodities within HS 84-97.

The Customs of China continues to work on adding weight as a unit of measurement for all commodities.

Source for data on China: Statistics Department, General Administration of Customs of China

SOURCE: : Eurostat, Publish Date MARCH, 2013

(1) 2006 data for Iceland.

Figure 7. National and international rail National and international railadjusted) (Billion tonne-km, trend, seasonally

(Billion tonne-km, trend, seasonally adjusted) Source: Eurostat (online data code: mar_mg_aa_pwhd) EU

USA and Russia

100

700

90

600

80

500

United States

70

Statistics in focus — 7/2013

60 Q2/01

Q3/08

Russia

5

400

Q2/12

300 Q2/01

Q3/08

Q2/12

SOURCE: : ITF, 2012

Note: Data on rail freight in the EU area include Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom. These cover around 95% of total rail freight in the EU

Note: Data on rail freight in the EU area include Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom. These cover around 95% of total rail freight in the EU.

April 2013 | www.railwaypro.com

56 Policies & Strategies

Mega-trucks are useless! [ by Elena Ilie ]

They are over 25 metres long and have up to 60 tonnes of weight, 2 tonnes more than a passenger Boeing 737-300. They are the “monster trucks”, also known as longer and heavier vehicles, mega-trucks or Eurocombi, the vehicles that the profile industry is slowly trying to impose for heavy weight or dangerous goods transport to the detriment of trains.

A

ccording to data from Allianz pro Schiene Association, we find out that in Germany only 28 road transport companies have had a total of 36 mega-trucks for testing of which 28 vehicles are in exploitation. Figures are not that high considering the fact that the German Federal Government had considered 400 such vehicles to be tested. However, an analysis of the same Allianz pro Schiene Association referring to the length of the road network which permits the traffic of vehicles in Europe shows that the network had been extended by 1,800 km in the first year of tests 2012-2013 which is not good news at all.

The acceptance of mega-trucks in crossborder transport generated a series of disputes between the European Commission and the European Parliament at the middle of last year. The reason for these disputes was the provision included in Directive 53/96 which allows member states to accept their territory being transited by megatrucks if the infrastructure of the respective state can sustain the operation of these vehicles. The European Parliament is against this provision and wants it amended. The latest data show that in 2013 the Directive which sets the weight and the length of heavy road vehicles will be reviewed.

Currently, the use of modular heavyLonger, but not heavier? Where mega trucks are being used they have a weight of 60 tons

SOURCE: www.nomegatrucks.eu

www.railwaypro.com | April 2013

Mega truck opponents by country

SOURCE: www.nomegatrucks.eu

weight trucks is already permitted in Finland and Sweden and is tested in Denmark, the Low Countries and seven German lands Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Hesse, Thuringia, Saxony and Bavaria.

Most of the people in Europe are aware of the danger and high level of pollution generated by the presence of these vehicles on roads and oppose to their acceptance by national governments. Therefore, 88% of the Belgians are against mega-trucks on roads, as well as 69% of Poles, 77% of Germans, 80% of Swiss , 81% of the French also say “no” and 75% of the people in Great Britain. The No Mega Trucks Association has launched a campaign with the same name which aims at signalling the multiple dangers generated by the presence of megatrucks in Europe, even though they are currently operated only in the Scandinavian Peninsula and tested in Western Europe.

The fact that LHVs – under ideal test conditions – can save fuel and cut the number of journeys is just a naïve calculation that does not add up in the everyday world of

nation-wide transportation. As a series of railway freight operators in Western Europe, next to different authorities involved and infrastructure managers test the efficiency of longer trains and higher axle loads for increasing freight transport in the Eurasian platform, the mega-trucks seem useless.

Часть Европы всё ещё выступает против мега-грузовиков Их длина составляет более 25 метров, а вес до 60 тонн, на 2 тонны больше, чем пассажирский Boeing 737-300. Это гигантские транспортные средства, которые еще называют мега-грузовиками - а автодорожная промышленность намеревается постепенно их навязывать для перевозки крупнотоннажных или опасных грузов, в ущерб железнодорожным перевозкам.