Railway Transport,
a Possible Step Forward
for the Economical Revitalization

Along the time, man needed the transport for him, as well as for his dowry, the time passing imposing the invention of new, safer, more efficient and naturally, faster means of transportation.
XIXth century brought about the railway transport, as an expression of the continuous need of more, safer, faster and, in time, there has been succeeded its continuous development.
The present, as it is, it has imposed a new approach of the idea of transport, starting to approach the transport modes, merging and creating new concept, as well as the combined and multimodal transport and a new vision on the access to the railways and the transport fluxes, as well as of the flexibility required by the current world economy.
For Romania, as a central European country, situated at the intersection of the three main transport corridor, becomes the striking need to adapt our own transport infrastructure, as well as the way of regarding the new transport requirements in the development conditions and of the extension of the European economy with the confident directions to the former-Soviet and Asian space.
The adaptation to the new requirements depends to the financial and political factors, as well as to the implementation of certain coherent strategies, with firm main and secondary direction, with the average and long lasting terms, the fulfillment of these desideratum depending on the devotion and the visionary feature of the persons involved, imposed by the rules of a lasting development.
In Romania, the railway transport, which currently crosses a recession stage, has a success perspective only in the conditions of its adapting to the trans-European conventional transport system, becoming, in the same time, an open system, where the inter-connections with the other transport modes will be facile for the various interested economical agents. This mode of transport has the chance to transform in a real mode of development, through the achievement of the projects that have already started off or are in starting off process, concomitantly gearing the entire collateral industry and therefore proving that we could understand and apply the European common language of the development.
The reorganization of Romanian railway, its adaptation to the requirements of the economy, as well as the intersection with the other modes of transport represent conditions that should be urgently met in order to be able to demonstrate that the Romanian railway system remains further on a main factor in the economical re-launching, and also a possible linking bridge with Europe in the perspective of adhering to the European Union. Presently, in our country there are started off ambitious projects for each branch of the railway transport, the projects that have started to be materialized through: the rehabilitation of certain railway lines on the pan-European Corridor IV, the modernization and the reconstruction of wagons and locomotive, the introduction in operation of the motorcar train sets. Unfortunately, the combined, multimodal transport area and the one of the interoperability terminals with the other means of transportation were not covered according to the real need.
In perspective, the demands on the railway transport market, internal, as well as the international, will tend towards certain specialized segments, using new railway vehicles, with large transport capacity, increased interoperability, maintenance and reliability degree, with an increased capacity for connecting to the other transport modes. There could not be neglected the fact that, in the future, there will be emphasized especially the costs diminishing with respect to the maintenance, according to the system, using a personnel with a high specialization degree and high technique, including the IT systems. The environment protection requirements, which is more and more restrictive lately, will impel the designers and the producers to find new solutions, materials and specific equipment, which, will compulsorily include a superior technique.
The current production capacities from our country, that are so specific to the railway field, as well as the one willing to penetrate this market segment, in order to remain further on, in this area, there should be approached the reorganization and re - technologisation program pursuant to which the quality of the products or/and of the services delivered will be well-known and certified at European level, also identifying and forestalling the external profile market segments.
The juridical framework establishes as a national priority the achievement, development and modernization of the transport network of national and European interest for the railways being concomitantly established the conditions necessary for the achievement of its interoperability with the trans-European railway transport system, this juridical framework being adapted to the European policies in the field.
All these aspects create the premises sot in an average future there will be manifested a significant revitalization of the railway transport, as component part of the integrated and interoperable transport system, which has the capacity to ask and to offer appropriate conditions for the development of a collateral industry, demanding the existence of a large number of places of work with a superior training degree, and which become a revitalization factor of the Romanian economy.

Eng. Nicolea Sandu
State inspector, AFER