1 the voice of european railways idei and northwestern university - toulouse 7-8 november 2003...

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The Voice of European Railways

IDEI and Northwestern University - Toulouse 7-8 November 2003

Railroad Industry Structure,Competition and Investment

-Some remarks from the

Community of European Railways

______________________Dr. Johannes Ludewig

Executive Director Community of European Railways

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CER: The Community of European Railways

The Community of European Railways brings together 34 railway companies and infrastructure managers from the EU Member States, Norway, Switzerland and the CEEC

The CER deals with all policy areas of significance to railway transport

The CER offers advice and recommendations to policy makers in Brussels

CER works in close collaboration with the Paris-based UIC

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Development of Railway Lines and Motorways (in KM)in Europe (15) from 1970-2000 (Index 1970 = 100)

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

1970 1980 1990 2000

Motorway Railway

Motorways Rail High Speed Lines

1990 40.000 km 900 km

2000 50.000 km 3.000 km

2010 70.000 km 6.000 km

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50.0%

12.9%

38.4%

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1998 2010Road Rail Total

The challenge of demand growth – EU White Paper

Achieve a modal shift towards environmentally less damagingtransport modes (« Revitalising RAIL »).

and White Paper objective

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“Revitalising Rail”

(1) Competition as a necessary condition (2) Industry structure: Rail as a system

(3) How to safeguard system advantages while allowingfor fair competition

(4) Other needs to realise a sufficient framework

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(1) Competition as a necessary condition

• Starting point in the rail sector Directive 91/440, followed by 1st and 2nd railway package

• Competition leads to a variety of choices for consumers and increases thereby the overall market volume

• (Potential) competition puts pressure on market players to increase efficiency

The European Union has opened up network industriesfor competition

But: -- historical, political differences in EU Member States (e.g. importance of ‘service publique’ in France) -- opening of rail passenger market not so straightforward, overlap between contracted (public services obligations) and commercial traffic (mostly long distance)

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(2) Industry structure: Rail as a system

• Railways are a track-guided transport system

• The performance of the system is largely determined through the infrastructure

• Traffic management functions (e.g. signalling) will in future be divided between track and vehicle (ERTMS)

• Investment decisions in new rail infrastructure depend on the planned services (detailed planning including train programme, foreseen time table)

• … just to name some examples …

Technical interdepencies and economics of scope exists

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(3) How to safeguard system advantages while allowing for fair competition

• Although EU Directive only ask for a separation of essential functions, EU policy is leading in some countries to a very complex structure (e.g. Slovenia)

• Some countries separate infrastructure from operations although no competition on tracks takes place or is actively supported (e.g. Finland)

• In Germany the market is completely open since 1994, more than 200 external operators - the system is still integrated

• Final remark: in other network industries (telecommunications, electricity) only functional separation

It is possible to organise competition in different ways, but it is difficult to safeguard the system advantages in a separated environment

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(4) Other needs to realise the sufficient framework

Infrastructure as key for future development of the rail mode

• Reduce bottlenecks• Build new lines• Dedicated Freight Network / Priority Network• Harmonize investments on rail infrastructure between EU

Member States at European level

Taking into account the long time delays for infrastructure investments=> Decisions have to be taken now !

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Lines for trains with high speed

Priority networkSeparation of fast and slower trains andHarmonisation of speed

Mannheim

Dresden

Köln

Hannover

Berlin

Leipzig

Dortmund

Frankfurt/M

Nürnberg

Stuttgart

Kassel

Saarbrücken

Würzburg

Karlsruhe

DüsseldorfHalle

Rostock

Magdeburg

München

Basel

Hamburg

Bremen

Erfurt

Wolfsburg

In planning phase

Important other lines

Lines for trains with lower speed

Dedicated network in Germany

Develop Rail Infrastructure

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BETUWE-Line

• 160 km new freight line

• 25 tons axle load

• 120 km/h design speed

• Capacity: 10 trains/h per direction

• ERTMS level 2

• Early 2007 in operation

• approximately 4 billion Euro investment costs

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Iberian Peninsula – Ukraine

Iberian Peninsula – Germany (Slovakia)

Benelux – Italy via Luxemburg

CER Corridor Programme 2003

3 corridors analysed.3 action plans developedinvolving RUs, IMs and States

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Comparable framework conditions between modes of transport- unbalanced assignment of cost to road and rail

(4) Other needs to realise the sufficient framework

• Infrastructure charging (Eurovignette revision) weak points

(1) insufficient inclusion of external costs(2) unclear definition of cross-modal financing options

• The expected Framework Directive on Cross-Modal Charging & Financing has been abandoned !

• Energy taxation

• VAT question

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In conclusion:The need for simultaneous action

In order to bring rail in a position to reach the targets,three conditions have to be met at the same time

(1) improve railways’ performance to meet market requirements (task by the railways)

(2) establish fair framework conditions for all competing modes (task for politics)

(3) develop the necessary rail infrastructure so that the expected growth in transport demand can be accomplished (task for MS/EU)

This means: EU Commission / Parliament / Council, national governments and railway undertakings must act according to their responsibilities without waiting for one another!

1 the voice of european railways idei and northwestern university - toulouse 7-8 november 2003...

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