The impact of Railway Transportation over the Population

Whenever we talk about railway transportation, either for public or for freight, we all think of the importance it has for the national economy, but also to the way it affects the population. Many of us are leafing railway magazines of other railway companies, presenting the latest locomotives commissioned for the public benefit, wondering when it will be possible for the Romanian Railways to make available for public use such comfort?
This thought may have crossed the minds of the Ministry of Transportation personnel that together with the representatives of the National Public Railway Transportation Company have found few viable solutions for revitalizing the public transportation system. Among the priority measures we include the annual assets reevaluation for being able to establish the stages for repairing and improvement works. An attempt for changing the structure of the legal base is on the Ministry’s agenda, so that to permit the adjusting of prices and costs in compliance with the actual level of inflation. The applied policy in the relationship with the client will be a favorable and based on special offers that should appeal the public - booking two way ticket in the same day, cheaper season tickets, free of charge agencies, and at last but not at least, insuring of a brand new rolling-stock material. All these major changes have but one sole objective: a budget without losses.
Restructuring the railway public transportation will be accomplished through a new reorganization of this sector, renouncing at the current division in different companies - i.e. one long -route company and eight short-route ones. As a result of the analysis performed over the activity within these nine companies, the new management of the Ministry of Transportation found it as unprofitable such division and decided to return to the initial form, i.e. one sole railway public transportation company, called SNTFC “CFR Calatori” SA.
At the moment, according to the program elaborated by the management of the Ministry of Transportation and to the prognosis of the public transportation companies, 1700 trains daily travel on the railway. In the past years, they noticed a continuous decreasing on the transportation market, under the conditions in which the target for such market has not at all been changed. Another special issue, which will be in the future really considered, according to the Minister, Mr. Miron Mitrea, is the “age” of the park for locomotives and wagons, because “this is from where it begins the evaluation of service quality.” According to the applicable laws, in Romania, one wagon or one locomotive lasts no more than 20-30 years. The statistics showed that at the moment, half of the wagons and locomotives within the park have more than 30 years of exploitation, which means that, by maintaining the same rhythm for repairing works, in the near future the entire park will have more than the permitted average of age, and the company will no longer have any activity material. Hence the importance of the need to improve the situation of the entire rolling-stock material.
The only solution it its modernization. Such a project will be finalized for 100 wagons, due to the financial assistance of EBRD, project realized by Alstom, in collaboration with Astra Arad and Grivita Ateliers. In the same time another program for the modernization of 70 Diesel electrical locomotives will be started. As regarding the financial resources, the management of the Ministry of Transportation has announced that the negotiation with the Japanese Bank for Import - Export is going to be closed in no time, for an amount of 100 million US dollars. Further discussions are going to be concluded with EBRD for a new financial agreement. We already have a non -payable loaning offer from the Trade and Development Agency of the Government of the United States for acquiring supplementary automotive equipment. The Ministry’s representatives also hope that they will elaborate soon a strategy for changing the existent locomotives and wagons with electrical frames and automotive equipment built in our country.
According to the latest improvement program for public railway transportation, the Departments of SNTCF will envisage a series of changes in the organization structure for increasing the efficiency of the system, a new tariff policy, new service offers and the above-mentioned modernization of the rolling-stock material park.
Let’s have a closer look at the organization plan. In the report, there have been stipulated the advantages that will arise in the event of having one single company: a more efficient administration of resources, a better administration of liabilities but also of the subventions granted by the Government. In the territory it will be applied decentralized management of the operation activity whereas local authorities will have to involve more in the process of financial and organization activity of their own transportation system. Thus, a part of the activities will have a deeply centralized character, while the others will be achieved in the territory.
This is the way in which the reorganization of the public railway transportation system will be completed in stages, and will be the beneficiary of a rigorous but in the same time a very flexible policy, whose results will have a favorable impact on the population.

Reporting, Ana Stanciu