On May 21-22, the 5th High Level Infrastructure Meeting co-organised by CER and EIM took place in Brussels.

 

This year’s event was hosted by Infrabel and attracted CEOs and other high-level representatives of about 30 rail infrastructure companies from all parts of Europe. The meeting kicked off with a welcome reception at Hotel Hilton on May 21, with speeches by Matthias Ruete, Director General of DG Tren and Luc Lallemand, CEO of Infrabel. Mr Ruete talked about some of the expected future initiatives of the Commission, such as making sure that the Member States complete the implementation of the 1st Railway Package. Following additional welcome speeches by EIM Secretary General Michael Robson and CER Executive Director Johannes Ludewig, Mr Guido Ardell, Infrabel, invited all participants to the transfer buses, taking them to the Schaerbeek station to board the historic Orient Express train. In this spectacular environment, the participants enjoyed a fine dinner while the train went for a three-hour evening journey through a sun-drenched Belgium before returning to Brussels.
 

The meeting of the second day was held at Hotel Hilton. Ossi Niemimuukko, Vice-President of EIM and CEO of RHK, chaired the morning session. He introduced the day’s programme and announced the newly published CER/EIM booklet on rail infrastructure charging and accounting schemes in Europe, which was distributed to the participants in the meeting. 

The theme for the morning session was performance schemes. Enrico Grillo-Pasquarelli, Director for Inland Transport, DG TREN, was the first speaker. In his presentation, Mr Grillo-Pasquarelli called for the revitalization of European railways, and pointed to four key issues: 1) the reinforcement of management of the performance of the rail system, 2) the creation of long-term incentives to maintain infrastructure, 3) increasing interoperability, and 4) developing a freight-oriented network in Europe.

One of Mr Grillo-Pasquarelli’s key messages was that the quality of rail freight services could be much better, and that the level of competition required to drive quality forward is still not in place in the rail industry. In addition, capacity restraints, such as the failure to optimize the use of existing infrastructure and rolling stock contribute to underused capacity. The main priority for the EC and other stakeholders is, therefore, to make better use of existing infrastructure. Member States also need to complete the implementation of EU legislation, and to push forward work on interoperability.

Mr Grillo-Pasquarelli stated that the EC will soon publish a report on the quality and performance of rail freight services. This report will continue, and intensify, the policy approaches of the past, i.e. focussing on opening markets, moving forwards on interoperability, promoting ERTMS and developing telematics technologies. Mr Grillo-Pasquarelli also mentioned that a strategic group on freight-oriented networks is working on a report for the new EC Transport Commissioner, and will propose specific measures in October.

In the discussion after Mr Grillo-Pasquarelli’s speech, CER Executive Director Johannes Ludewig pointed out that evaluating quality and finding the right ways to improve quality indicators such as punctuality is much more complex than one might think. For example, introducing more competition does not necessarily lead to improved punctuality. Punctuality is related rather to the quality of infrastructure. He went on to say that CEOs know what is needed to improve rail services in EU, but the reality of the social/labour/political situation makes implementing these changes very difficult. Politics must create framework conditions for changes to be made.
 

Paul Plummer, Director of Corporate Planning & Regulatory Affairs at Network Rail, then delivered a presentation on their experience and benefits of implementing a performance scheme. He described how the regime fits into the specific context of the UK rail market by creating an alignment of interests between the Infrastructure Managers and the Railway Undertakings, using both penalties and bonuses. In the last few years, there has been a significant improvement in punctuality in the UK, achieved at the same time as increasing traffic and passenger numbers. Performance regimes generate huge amounts of management information, which is very useful on a daily basis and in long term planning. They also create incentives for investments to improve reliability, although it is important to evaluate future investments also from other viewpoints. 

A presentation from Volker Kefer, Head of DB Netz, followed. He argued that the long expected privatisation has been a driving force in change and improvement at DB. He continued to state that the freight market is growing fast, driven by North Sea and western ports, and rail is gaining market share over other modes. Simulations show that additional traffic will use a few main corridors, which are in need of additional investments. One way to meet this was the development of the ProNetz programme to increase development, performance, and efficiency. Among the results one can mention a falling number of unplanned speed limitations, thanks to a very detailed planning of construction along corridors. Mr Kefer warned that some EC proposals could endanger the successes achieved by the ProNetz programme, such as putting too much priority on international freight services, but assured that DB Netz is willing to work together with the Commission to ensure success.

Jean Faussurier, RFF, delivered the presentation initially to be held by Hubert du Mesnil, on the planned new infrastructure charging scheme for France, which aims at overcoming serious problems in financing. One specific problem is that half of the costs of the high-speed lines come from the infrastructure side, but the IM only receives 26% of the revenues generated by these lines. Mr Faussurier made the conclusions that a) charges must be increased to keep up with investment and growth, b) the charging system could provide incentives to improve efficiency, and c) implementation of a green charging scheme will help with environmental and noise issues, and to incentivise use of appropriate rolling stock.

Valerio Giovine, Director of Industrial Planning, TrenItalia, made a presentation on the implementation and expectations from the performance scheme in place in Italy since 2005. It is aimed at ensuring the efficiency of IM and RUs. However, it is only the first step in implementing quality rail services. Focus has been on punctuality as one important quality indicator. Mr Giovine argued that the implementation of the performance regime has enabled the identification of the precise causes of delays. This information creates significant value as it can be used in planning to reduce delays.

In the discussion following these presentations, Johannes Ludewig pointed out that success in improving the amount of traffic may lead to increased delays by increasing density on the network. He therefore stressed the importance of not looking at punctuality in isolation, but to evaluate this measure and the room for improvement in relation to traffic density.

After a break for lunch, the meeting continued with an afternoon session dedicated to interoperability and corridors. This was chaired by Krzysztof Celiński, chairman of the Board of PKP PLK.

Luc Lallemand, Infrabel, made a presentation on interoperability by drawing the attention of participants to the theoretical concept of interoperability on the one hand and ‘real interoperability’ on the other. He called for the implementation of the latter by putting into place an effective and efficient task force between the IMs in Europe to develop operating rules in a flexible and ‘non-structured’ manner, drawing from the experience of working like this in other industry sectors such as gas and electricity. The proposal was widely supported by the participants and Mr Lallemand was asked to continue his initiative to set up such a task force, which could eventually make proposals to the Commission to move forward.

Krzysztof Celiński then took the stage, delivering a presentation on the construction of high-speed lines in Poland as a way of increasing capacity for freight services on the East-West  axis. There will be clear benefits in reducing passenger traffic on the line, and Mr Celiński confirmed that the projects are not only integrated within the Polish Government budget, but also in the European Commission Structural support budget.

Luc Vansteenkiste, President of RailNetEurope, made the final presentation of the day, making an overview of an Infrastructure Managers’ International IT Development Plan put together by RNE. RNE is very involved in corridor management and Mr Vansteenkiste recalled that he had promised that RNE would develop IT tools as user-friendly as mobile phones. He outlined the added value of the Pathfinder tool, which is to be used for coordinating every international train path. By September 2008, RNE will have created an interface system with national systems. He also took the participants through the IT tool Europtirails (with real-time information functions), and mentioned that RNE is also deeply involved in the development of TAF TSI. Funding all these investments is an important issue and RNE is looking at prospects of acceding to European funds for the development of these projects.

Johannes Ludewig made the warning that seeking EC financing could backfire and argued that if the sector considers certain projects important enough for their business they should also be financed by the sector itself. Mr Vansteenkiste agreed, clarifying that the initiative to assist with funding had actually come from the Commission itself.

As the final point of the agenda, Krzysztof Celiński together with Michael Robson and Johannes Ludewig thanked all participants for the exchanges on the subjects. Mr Celiński further proposed that PKP PLK would host the next High Level Infrastructure Meeting in Warsaw. The proposal was approved by all participants and this meeting is expected to take place either on 28-29 May or 4-5 June 2009.