"We want to keep accidents at bay and reduce the number of unpleasant events on the public rail infrastructure."

Interview with Lucian Blaga - Circulation Safety and Control General Monitoring General Reviser

 

 

Personal Data

Date of birth: January 15 1957
City of birth: Parava, Bacau County

Studies: he graduated:

- Railway High School Bucharest - the current NO 12 High School.
Bucharest Polytechnic Institute, the Transports Faculty in 1982

Professional activity:

· stage: two years at the Pascani depot;
· 1984-1989 - chief repairs atelier at the Pascani Depot
· 1990 - 1994 - chief depot repairs and exploitation at the Pascani Depot
· 1994 - October 1st 1998 - general reviser at the CF Iasi Department
· October 1st 1998 - June 21 2000 - chef at the Regional Circulation Safety and Control General Monitoring at the CF Iasi Department
· June 21 2000 - general reviser at the RGSCC CFR SA.

Rail Journal: What is new for you as a General Reviser for CFR SA?
Lucian Blaga: My railway activity began at the CFR Pascani depot, one of the oldest rail centres in the country. I had there the opportunity to learn a lot about railway activities. The years that I worked for the CFR Iasi direction as a Reviser taught me a lot also. Now I can look at this position from a vintage spot - that of a man who knows what to do in order to get the job done.
The rhythm is relatively the same as the one I was used to when I worked in Iasi. The sole exception is the fact that within the General Monitoring, the activity is much more elaborate, considering that my responsibility is extended to include all eight directions.
RJ: How is the Circulation Safety and Control General Monitoring structured and what are the modifications in the organising scheme?
LB: The organising scheme of the General Monitoring was modified starting with August 1st 2000 and it presently includes three compartments. A general reviser and a deputy general reviser insure the leadership. The three compartments are the Traffic Safety Compartment, the Public Infrastructure Access Control Compartment and the Notifications and Complaints Compartment. At the first two there are central revisers specialising in lines, installations, stock and movement.
Within the Public Infrastructure Access Control Compartment there are two types of central revisers in the PSI and PM (labour protection) branches who co-ordinates these activities by the regional circullation safety and control monitoring departments with the eight CFR zonal divisions. At the level of every regional department there are regional circulation safety and control monitoring services.
The new Complaint compartment has as purpose resolution of all the existing problems the mass media reveals all the time or brought into our attention by the Ministry of Transport. Also all the complaints from the part of the juridical or physical persons affected in one way or another by railway the activity enters the attention of our jurists, economists, engineers or transport professionals. Within this compartment we investigate the problems starting with the received complaints and ending with the rapport that presents the real situation. Thus, we want that CFR-SA to be the beneficiary of the image of a serious partner willing to continuously improve its activity.
RJ: How do you keep in touch with those from the territory. Is it always necessary to go to the respective regional department?
LB: The contact with my subordinates from the regional departments is permanent, so that the Monitoring centre to know any time the real situation on each rail. Especially in the cases that some unpleasant events occur regarding the traffic or the traffic manoeuvres; we have to be the first to know so that we should dispose the necessary elements to reduce the problem as much as possible.
I want to say that I think that any man in a leader-position wants to know exactly the working areas that concerns his activity. Anyway, on eof my obligations is that of knowing the palace of work - the department where he works as they say. Now I can admit that my activity area is represented by the entire country and the entire railway network.
Last month I had a very busy program because I wanted to go to each regional department of the company. Thus I've seen with my own eyes the real fact, the people and they got to know me as well. I think this is very important for things to go well.
RJ: One of the RGSCC missions is that of proposing new rules for the improvement of the railway transportation. What are your projects and proposals?
LB: We established a program in this respect with precise responsibilities and data. This is a program of instructions and data editing on the base of which the railway must act and function. Some of them have already been given to approval by the Romanian railway authorities (AFER) and until the end of this year we want to finally complete this program that have been postponed and delayed for so long in the last years. But we have already done big progress and we have had the first results. Let me give you an example: the new instructions regarding the exploitation of the intervention ways under title Instruction no 632 - that is obligatory for all the railway agents. The instructions for the ploughs' exploitation during wintertime are now to be completed.
Realisation of this program needs also the complete collaboration with the other transportation societies created after the reorganisation of the SNCFR.
The new organisation form of the Romanian railway system imposed these stipulations. In the end, all these stipulations will be sent to all railway operators under the order of the Minister of Transport. I have to say that The Central Monitoring Centre has an important role for these instructions since within this department all the traffic problems are debated and solved so that the trains' traffic should not be affected.
RJ: What are your plans for the future as a general reviser of the CFR-SA?
LB: As I think any man in my position would do, I plan that together with my colleagues to improve the activity concerning the railway traffic. Even when I worked in the CFR Iasi Department the only thing I proposed each year was: "this year we will not have any unpleasant events on the railway!" Of course everyone told me that it was an idealist plan because in the railway activity no one had ever reached such a performance. But for me it was perfectly normal because while speaking of the traffic safety you cannot say: "this year I propose to have just two or three railway events", it is impossible to event think like that. That is why I propose to myself to reduce the number of the unpleasant events on the railway infrastructure and to have no accidents, God forbid!

Reporting Ileana Statie