Rail Freight Lines - Lord Berkeley
Issue: Winter 2008
It is time for the British Government to be proactive in Europe? The UK rail industry has much to gain from a liberalised rail freight market across Europe; EWS Railway, Freightliner and Arriva are all operating in other member states, several UKbased leasing companies are also active in both the traction and wagon leasing markets, and of course there are many consultancies working on various issues both with the Commission and in other member states.
The UK rail industry has much to gain from a liberalised rail freight market across Europe; EWS Railway, Freightliner and Arriva are all operating in other member states. Several UKbased leasing companies are also active in both the traction and wagon leasing markets, and of course there are many consultancies working on various issues both with the Commission and in other member states. Many other companies would dip their toes into business across the Channel if they could see a fair and transparent market there.
Sadly, this is not always the case. Seventeen years after the first Directive was approved, and seven years after a stronger one, member states have still not completed the process which would allow any licensed train operator from any member state to operate across Europe.
The barriers to operating are still high in many member states as well as being different in each. New entrants find that they are notallowed to haul a train across an internal EU frontier because the member states concerned have not bothered to cancel a bilateral treaty that only permitted the state-owned railways to perform this task; new entrants are refused use of state-owned terminals that are declared ‘full’ even when they have not seen a train for tenyears.
In Italy, the incumbent gets priority on access and performance charging, which one new entrant described as a ‘hell on rail’. Standard Class 66 locomotives, used extensively in the UK and across continental Europe, fell foul of the Polish rail regulator who,having approved them for use in Poland several years ago, then introduced retrospective legislation requiring the drivers’ seat to bemoved from right to left, or two drivers employed, since they were no longer safe to be used with right hand drive. One wonders what changed after four years’ safe working with right hand drive, but it is of course no surprise that the incumbent operator, PKP, has no right hand drive locomotives!
Across Europe, with the notable exception of the UK and Germany, there is no independent rail regulator to ensure fair access to tracks and terminals, to regulate the costs and therefore thecharges for using infrastructure or for acting as an appeal body.
In the UK, rail freight has grown by 60% in ten years largely because of competition, compared with France where it has reduced by 40% in the same period. It is in the interests of the UKGovernment to support our industry by pressing the case for the complete liberalisation of the rail market across Europe, technically, commercially and legally, with the minimum of delay.
● Lord Berkeley is Chairman of the Rail Freight Group. For further information, visit: www.rfg.org.uk
Published: 22/12/2008
