IF more evidence is needed of the growing resurgence of rail transport, then look no further than the August issue of IRJ. Expansion is underway in many parts of the world from Asia via the Middle East and Africa to Europe and across the Atlantic to the Americas. For someone who has been writing about railways for 30 years, the contrast between now and the 1980s could not be greater as the outlook back then was far from certain and in many cases decidedly bleak.

 

THE decision by the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) to wheel out its big hitters at the European Parliament in Brussels last month to argue the case for more stable funding of railways was commendable. While the five CEOs chosen for the task put the case forcefully, unfortunately the exercise also revealed a deepening schism between Europe’s state-owned railways on the future of liberalisation and its consequences for rail transport.

 

RAIL transport has demonstrated a remarkable resilience to the arctic blasts from the global economic and financial crisis. In many countries, rail has bucked the downturn as it has benefited from government economic stimulus packages. But can rail continue to prosper in the light of the latest crisis in the Euro currency zone and the dawning realisation by many governments that they need to reduce their bloated budget deficits and fast?

 

MAJOR changes are happening in both supply and operations which will have a profound effect on the shape of the railway industry over the next few years. A shake-up of the key railway equipment suppliers is underway which will increase competition, while paradoxically in Europe the large remaining state-owned railways are steadily swallowing up private operators to create a few European monoliths which pose a threat to open-access and competition.

 

NEVER before - at least not in my 30-odd years as a railway journalist - has a train control system aroused such passion and heated debate as ERTMS. So every time a conference is staged on the subject, you can be certain the attendance will be high and the debate lively. Global Transport Forum’s launch conference on ERTMS held in Rome last month was no exception.

 

ALL modes of transport are vulnerable to disruption caused by bad weather, human error, or circumstances beyond the control of the operator concerned. But what marks out a good operator from a bad one, is the ability to deal with problems swiftly and efficiently to mitigate the effects of the disruption, to communicate effectively with both staff and customers, and to get the passengers or goods to their final destination safely and with as little delay as possible. According to the independent report into the failure of five Eurostar trains in the Channel Tunnel on December 18-19, Eurostar failed on all counts.

AS the world’s leading economies stagger out of recession and record their first periods of meagre growth, the rail sector looks set to achieve much stronger growth than the overall economic performance of most countries, as investment in rail surges ahead.

THE 119 world leaders attending the United Nations’ COP15 climate change conference in Copenhagen last month had yet to make any pronouncements as this issue of IRJ went to press. However, as transport accounts for 23% of global CO2 emissions, it is sure to feature in the final declaration. Rail transport, being the only good boy, amongst the different modes, has done an excellent job in promoting rail as the only green mode, but the question is whether this momentum can be maintained.

 

YOU don’t get to be the world’s second richest man and one of the world’s most successful investors by making bad investments. So Warren Buffett’s audacious decision to sink a cool $US 34 billion into one of North America’s largest railways, BNSF, is a huge vote of confidence in the future of rail transport. It is not that long ago that investors of the calibre of Buffett would not have touched railway stock with a barge pole, and for sure, they would have lost their shirts.

SWEDEN was the birthplace in the 1980s of one of the biggest and most controversial changes in the way railways are run - the separation of infrastructure management from train operations. Sweden is now pioneering an equally-controversial reform by merging the management of the national road and rail networks into one body along with the planning for roads, railways, airports and ports and the links between them.

 

WHILE there are encouraging signs that the worst economic recession since the Great Depression is bottoming out, it is already clear that some railfreight operators have weathered the storm far better than others. The shrewd operators have seized the moment to prepare themselves to take advantage of the recovery when it comes.