RAILWAYS and politics have always been reluctant bedfellows for a variety of reasons, such as state ownership or funding, or because of regulation and legislation. But it is an unequal relationship partly because of the politicians’ ability to pass new laws and partly because railways often find it difficult to be heard or state their case forcefully enough.

Korail, Korea’s national rail operator, has developed an initiative to tackle environmental issues and keep up with the Korean government’s low carbon and green growth policy, reports David Briginshaw.

THE chairman and CEO of Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation (THSRC), Mr Ou Chin-Der, is to be congratulated on turning around the fortunes of Taiwan’s high-speed railway. As he explains in an exclusive interview with IRJ, it is a real achievement to go from making losses during the first four years of operation to produce sufficient profit to be able to start repaying debt in challenging trading conditions.

SERIOUS railway accidents often have repercussions well beyond the immediate cause. Their rarity - reflecting the generally high standard of railway safety - usually points to some wider deficiency. This is certainly the case with the fatal crash near Wenzhou, China, on July 23. The world’s first fatal accident on a dedicated high-speed line was bound to attract attention, but it came only three weeks after the opening of the world’s longest high-speed railway, the 1318km Beijing - Shanghai line, which itself has been the subject of significant press reporting due to poor reliability.

In the midst of criticism of rail’s environmental credentials from the road freight industry, the Australasian Railway Association is fighting back, as Kevin Smith discovers.

Swiss open-access railfreight operator Crossrail is enjoying an enviable run of success as its CEO Jeroen Le Jeune explains to regional editor Anitra Green.

 

THE formation of the Independent Regulators Group - Rail (IRG-Rail) by 15 national railway regulators should bring some comfort to the line-up of private rail operators preparing to launch open-access passenger services in Europe, often in the face of stiff opposition from incumbents, not to mention embattled open-access railfreight operators.

THERE is little doubt that South America’s rail network would be a lot smaller than it is today had several governments not taken the bold step to privatise their railways in the 1990s. Years of under-investment coupled with a failure to restructure national networks from bloated bureaucracies into commercial enterprises had taken their toll and put much of the continent’s railway on the road to oblivion.

The second plenary session at the World Congress on Railway Research (WCRR) produced a wide-ranging discussion on the future economic and environmental challenges facing the world’s railways. Kevin Smith was in the audience.

 

THE government-commissioned report by Sir Roy McNulty into the cost of running Britain’s railways comes to the damning conclusion that British taxpayers and passengers have been paying far more than necessary since the catastrophic Hatfield derailment in 2000, caused by poor track maintenance which led to an explosion in costs and the eventual collapse of Railtrack. Overall McNulty says Britain’s railways cost 40% more than they should and this must be cut by 30% within seven years.