Railway Reform imposes a change of attitude

The lack of freedom, which affected us until 1990, made us develop ourselves in an artificial environment, being deprived of communication with other civilizations.
After the Revolution, any information restriction seemed to have practically vanished; now, we have the possibility of connecting to other European states’ reality, and not only. Many of us manage to even travel abroad. Thus we are able to have contacts with the entire world and it is in our power to discover the changes that help us to reconnect to the European way of life.
In order to make a comparison between the Romanian railway system and the other railway networks in the entire Europe, we took advantage of the experience of Mr. Vasile Olievschi, manager of the General Department of Regulations and service Quality in Railway Transportation, who was so kind as to talk about the present trends in the railway reform system on the European level.
“There certainly is, among those working in railway transportation field, a powerful feeling of identification with the professional guild they belong to. From this perspective, any railway company may be regarded as a “caste”, which incorporates the new comers and in time makes them have special feelings and emotions. It is a good thing, which is very lived in full even by the Romanian railway men. The affiliation feeling makes this special “culture” to survive the time. As an old institution, CFR has assimilated norms, provisions, habits and working manners that in time became a culture of the company, fact that also led to the formation and maintenance of the company. Reaching this way to traditionalism may also constitute a disadvantage: “This how it always have been!”; “This is the way its has to be!”. The message of the latter is simple: it would be a blasphemy to try to make some changes to rules you inherited. I think that, between 1990-1992, when Romania experienced the principle of changing only for the sake of changing this particular common culture protected somehow the Romanian Railways. The railway traditionalism was good at that time. But latter….
Now I think that this tendency must be very thoroughly considered, since the railway world is in continuous changing, because it has to change, no matter the means. That is why, our duty is to try to make some changes and to reform the railway enterprise in compliance with the present tendency, without forgetting the “common heritage” and the affiliation feeling, but guiding ourselves about the market expectations for the railway transportation system. Such an attitude presupposes multiple and complex changes as for instance, a change in our attitude toward the system. Metaphorically speaking, the problem for railway men all over the world is that, by loving so deeply the trains, they forget that they exist for serving the market and clients’ interests. Hence the risk of a purely technically approaching of the issue, of making “art for the art’s sake”, without taking into consideration the market any longer. This is not only a Romanian problem since it manifests the same way for Frenchmen, Germans, Italians, etc. At the moment, the rules and provisions of the market imposed by the globalization bring about a new functioning form for any enterprise and …the one who does not “move” quickly in this direction, will most certainly vanish. Of course, it may seem unbelievable to talk about the disappearance of the railways; this is very unlikely to happen in the near future. But, there still is the idea that market target for the railway transportation has diminished considerably lately, in comparison with the road transportation. The causes are various and for the time being, any of the railway networks has a receipt for success. Since we are talking about the European Union where we intend to integrate some day, one of the main objectives of its policy is to create a unique market for each transportation modality. Our competition has already reached this kind of market! By establishing certain common regulations, tracks are free to travel within Europe and the clients are served in the same way, no matter the citizenship they have; airplanes land in the same airport no matter the airline company they belong to. So the united market has already been created. For the railways, this system has not been applied yet. The great majority of railway managers still believe that the market ends within the country’s frontiers, and any client experiences a little adventure each time it deals with the international transportation. He has to submit to specific rules of every railway system, to study numerous regulations and to fill in endless application forms if he needs to use the railway transportation. He must understand and act in compliance with the rules imposed by each different railway administration. This is one of the great deficiencies of the railway transportation system, in comparison with the other transportation modalities. This example is sufficient for showing the obvious attitude difference that still exists between railway transportation system and the other competing transportation modalities. On the European level, we have to establish and apply several common rules, to create an institutional and legislative system that will permit the regularization of the common market. Due to EU directives, they are trying to separate the infrastructure railway operator administrations, offering this way the possibility of free transportation in Europe for such a category. But all these norms and provisions are already at the beginning. So that, we may say that every railway network is in “stand by”. Each of them is frighten to try to cross over the border, because they do not know is they are strong enough to challenge the market. The difficulty of creating the unique market is also accentuated by the incomplete legislative system; EU directives are still vague, leaving room for interpretations and they do not establish protection norms in case of monopoly abuse, or limit regarding the states’ support. Under these circumstances, it gets risky to make presumptions about the free market force of European railways. As long as national frontiers still protect the market for railway we can speak of very strong European railways and this not because they are better organized but because behind them are governments that are able to offer billions of dollars annually and as such they “move” faster than other networks. Considering the fact that many have raised functioning costs it is difficult to predict how they will manage themselves on a unified market, regulated by the EU. For now we cannot speak of a free market or equal opportunities for larger or smaller operators. What is evident is the fact that EU will force this direction and national frontiers will no longer constitute proper protection for the railway market. Other railways will appear - continental, regional, and local and others will disappear. Concerning us, we will have to double our efforts to be prepared for the moment we will adhere to EU we will need all or strength to keep ourselves on the line with real chances of expansion. Although we bravely started to reform the railway from a legislative and institutional point of view, the process will be harder than for the other railways.
First, it is difficult to predict the evolution of the internal transportation market because in Romania the whole economy is in a transition period and there are yet many undefined strategies. Another inconvenient would be the fact that out equipment both for technical and rolling stock is much under the mean level of the European average. Yet another disadvantage is the fact that the Romanian Government cannot allow to offer material and financial support at the same levels as those attained by other EU governments and this puts us at a disadvantage.
A last shortcoming would be the fact that we are all undergoing a mentality change. As we are talking about this aspect we are making reference to a double change: as railway men that understood how a railway should work and especially as individuals who understood the kind of society we are aiming for. Coming from a totalitarian system and a command economy we are lulled by a false image about the market economy and this is an image we must get rid of soon as possible. We must understand that in the market economy nobody makes ant gifts and we must renounce to wait in vain for “help” from others. We must understand once and for all that there is no free meal. The world we live in and we want to integrate into will provide us with advantages only after we will decipher the rules by which it is conducted. We must rich as soon as possible a level of pragmatism that will let us understand that we Romanians are competing with the others. Sure we can talk of cooperation in the market economy but only in the context where each partner has something to gain. If we will manage to eliminate that false image of the world we live in we will have a fighting chance in the market economy.
All these and many others are necessary in order to enter and keep on the floating line on the European railway market.”

Curriculum Vitae

Name: Vasile Nicolae Olievschi
Date of birth: January 1st 1950
Studies: Bucharest Polytechnics - the Transports Faculty - 1972 class
Profession: railway transportation engineer
Career:
1972 - 1989 - Various positions as a computational engineer (system analyst, database administrator, head of the research team) at the Transport Ministry Computations Center
1990 - 1994 - Director of the Cybernetics Center of the Romanian Railways
1994 - 1998 - Vice-President of CFR National Company
1998 - 1999 - Technical director of the Management Unit for PSAL (Governmental Project for the Adjustment of the Private Sector
1999 - 2000 - Director of the CFR External Funded Projects Management Department
2001 - General Manager of the Railway Transportation Service Regulations and Quality General Department

Main accomplishments:
1975 - 1980 - designed complex cybernetic systems for railways regarding real time control for transport activities
1981 - 1983 - designed an automated calculations system for optimal route choosing for international railway traffic (minimal cost route identification)
1985 - 1988 - designed the architecture and coordinated the development of the software for the X.25 network of the Romanian railway network
1991 - 1994 - coordinated the development of the automated system for tickets and reservations in the Bucharest North station
1994 - 1998 - elaborated the strategy for the restructuring and modernizing of the Romanian Railways
1994 - 1998 - coordinated the project for the railway modernization regarding:
• The development of the telecommunication network
• Making of the integrated cybernetic system
• Introduction of modern technology for rail maintenance
• Rehabilitation of locomotives and cars for railway
• Modernization of the Romanian route for the European railway corridors
1992 - 2000 - coordinated the activities of the governmental project PSAL, the only program for structural adjustment agreed by the World Bank and fully supported by the Romanian Government

International activities:
1992 - 1998 - member of the Executive Committee of the Cybernetics Committee of the International Railways Union (UIC)
1995-1998 - member of the Executive Committee of the UIC Infrastructure Commission
1995 - 1998 - director for various international projects financed through UIC with a total value of Euro 3.5 million
1998 - 2000 - president of the UIC Information Committee
1998 - 2000 - Co-president on behalf of the Romanian party of the Work Group for transportation created within the Action Group USA - Romania that acts within the Strategic Partnership USA - Romania with the aim of identifying and promoting common interest projects in the transportation field.

Oana Bran reporting