International
financial crisis, which limits the capacity of UIC’s members to develop projects. ‘We are facing this contradiction of rail now being pushed as the most sustainable way of development around the world and at the same time we are limited by the financial capacity of our members. ‘Budgetary restraints and urgent priorities mean that rail does not receive the investment from governments that it needs to achieve the results that they demand.
‘Another challenge is to give the UIC a real global dimension to push links and the mobility of goods and people between east and west, for instance. Interoperability used to mean, for example, Austria to Hungary traffic, today it means the connection between western Europe and eastern China. It needs all stakeholders, including road companies and sea ports, to commit to building partnerships and the development of logistical hubs to provide total transport solutions, not just rail yard to rail yard. It requires a lot of technical effort to achieve true interoperability, and the goodwill and financial input of governments to achieve this necessary goal.’ What are your predictions for the future needs in the logistics and railway
services in Europe?
‘Primarily it will be freight issues. Rail freight needs to become part of the logistics chain with collection and delivery of the goods right into city centres, factory to factory, port to stores. Freight issues will become more important as we face up to new large- scale global freight mobility. Goods will travel in longer and heavier trains, over longer distances along international corridors, which need to be developed, with a proper infrastructure, with a proper capacity and a proper quality and safety of movements. Only then will modal shift and an increase in business trade by rail be possible.’ An important traffic flow had developed between Salzburg and Thessaloniki via Slovenia, which was interrupted by the Balkans war. This is now part of EU corridor 10, which the UIC is busy promoting. Loubinoux says Corridor 10 ‘absolutely
must’ be developed. UIC market surveys – an important part of the UIC work – have identified strong container flows and future development of this type of traffic along this route. Technical hiccups and deficiencies in capacity, electrification, track and signalling have been highlighted. This information, and solutions to the
issues raised, has been passed to member railways along the corridor so that they can use this independent evidence to lobby their own governments, as well as the EU, to be able to justify investment along this route. Corridors 4 and 5 also affect this flow, and similar work has been done to show the vital need for investment for the future of freight flows. Turkey is a growing market; does UIC have views on this area? ‘Yes, Turkey is one of the big, active members of UIC. They are developing high speed lines and freight traffic, eastwards to Iran and the eastern markets, westwards to Russia and the Black Sea or with Europe towards Greece, Corridor 10 again, and Romania, Corridor 4. UIC is helping with establishing the common standards that will ensure that cross border traffic will operate successfully.’ How can UIC help with common problems, such as the growth in passenger traffic squeezing out freight paths on networks?
‘There needs to be vision in all this.
UIC has a clear vision as to how all such developments can link together. UIC provides the technical supportive evidence to lobbying bodies at Brussels. They can directly lobby the EU institutions to inform the commission of what is
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