New OPERA Final Conference - Updated Information!

Posted: 5 September 2008

NEWOPERA – THE RAIL FREIGHT DEDICATED LINES CONCEPT

A DRIVER FOR CREATING A NEW RAIL FREIGHT ECONOMY IN EUROPE

30 September 2008, Brussels

The conference will take place at the
Cercle Royal Gaulois
Rue de la Loi, 5
1000 Brussels

Deadline for registration is 15 September 2008.

The day will illustrate all the topics researched during the project for the implementation of the Rail-Freight Dedicated Network in Europe. Do not miss this last possibility to learn any aspects about this successful research project and to speak to all relevant partners and stakeholders. In addition you will have the unique opportunity to receive the NewOpera Final Document. This book summarizes the project results and innovations as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the existing rail freight system. It will be distributed free of charge during the conference.

The conference will be free of charge.

We look forward to welcoming you on 30 September 2008 in Brussels!

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

Kind regards

Helene Köpf

International Technical Affairs Manager
Rolling Stock and Integrated Rail Systems

UNIFE - The European Railway Industries
221, Avenue Louise
B-1050 Brussels
Phone : +32 2 643 70 81
Mobile : +32 496 164 908
Please visit us at: www.unife.org

Conference flyer

• Conference flyer - 853KiB PDF download

Attached files

• Conference Invitation - 272KiB PDF download
• FINAL Agenda - 550KiB PDF download
• Registration and Hotels - 396KiB PDF download

Great Success for the 4th New Opera Stakeholders Conference

Posted: 11 February 2008

Great Success for the 4th New Opera Stakeholders Conference: "The market opening and the perspective of increasing rail market share in a rail freight dedicated lines concept"

The 4th NEWOPERA Stakeholders conference which took place on January 23rd 2008 at the EU Commission Conference Centre "Albert Borschette" in Brussels gathered more than 220 participants around the theme: "The market opening and the perspective of increasing rail market share in a rail freight dedicated lines concept". One year after the full rail freight market opening, the conference was an ideal opportunity to evaluate the progress made and to assess new ideas for further actions. The conference was organised by UNIFE with the support of CER, EIM, ERFA, ERFCP, F&L, UIP and UIRR.

The conference was officially opened by Hon. Georg Jarzembowski, European MP. During his introduction, he appreciated the effort made by the DG TREN in promoting several actions towards sustainable European Freight mobility and in particular he made reference to the communication on the "Primary European Rail Freight Network" as a fundamental pillar of this policy. He continued by stating the need of introducing concrete actions into the market place for changing the current situation. To this effect it was important to obtain feedbacks from stakeholders and this was a good opportunity for fulfilling this objective. Mr. Jarzembowski while understanding the principles of the Dedicated Rail Freight Lines, did not hide the difficulties of practical implementation, given the political sensitivity of this issue interfering with passengers mobility.

These opening remarks gave Dr. Enrico Grillo-Pasquarelli, Director of DG TREN, the opportunity for reinforcing the validity of the actions, packages, measures adopted so far in favour of Sustainable Mobility. He confirmed that the communications already published represent important choices and that such choices will be followed up by a set of technical, political and financial measures to be developed in agreement with all member states.

In particular he mentioned that 2008 was declared the year of rail freight. Results had already been achieved such as the European train driver certificate together with a number of other measures of cross acceptance implementing rail interoperability. The European Rail Agency is working on this point for national safety rules harmonisation and other standardization principles. The "Primary European Rail Freight Network" is a long term objective and for its implementation we must start working now making the correct operational and political choices. Considerable progress in ERTMS have been made looking particularly at level 3 which improves rail lines productivity by as much as 50%. In addition competition on rail tracks has become effective with the release in Europe of about 700 rail transport licences between freight and passengers. Work is currently in progress for internalising the road external costs, providing a more balanced level playing field between different transport modalities. All these actions are coherent with the EU objective of promoting long term sustainable mobility, reducing the environmental impact. Both representatives of the European Institutions expressed their strong interest on the NEWOPERA project results towards a practical implementation of its conclusions.

The conference wanted to explore the commercial and marketing aspect that the progressive introduction of the Rail Freight Dedicated Lines would require. For this reason it was organised around four panels debates involving key market players and members of the audience.

• Panel 1: Modern rail market needs - intermodality and conventional traffic.
• Panel 2: How to increase market share in a rail freight dedicated lines concept.
• Panel 3. Eliminating barriers for market opening & infrastructure charging systems.
• Panel 4. New actors in rail freight services: freight integrators - optimizers - consolidators - logistics operators - forwarders - Ports & logistics Platforms.

The need of an efficient European Rail Freight Network emerged as a common conference denominator. The market conditions were found to be favourable for Rail Freight developments and while some actors indicated the problems yet to be resolved, others showed great optimism in rail freight successful future.

The Panel 1 moderated by Lord Tony Berkeley- RFG UK, indicated rail freight as being a realistic alternative to road, especially in countries where market liberalisation and competition have been implemented. Rail freight is still a complicated transport system to be organised but despite such difficulties the market in intermodality has grown substantially both in the overland market segment as well as in the maritime market segments. Companies representing transport operators declared to continue their investment policy for increasing their rail freight intermodal volumes. The service quality however need to be significantly improved.

The conventional traffic customers, indicated, poor service performance, lack of traction, lack of rail cars, coupled with prices not always competitive. However not to many problems appeared at national level while more difficulties were emerging in crossing borders and in last mile operations. At this stage the lack of corridors capacity, conflict with passengers and operational barriers at border crossing were identified as hindering factors. Also neutrality of infrastructure managers was indicated as a necessity. The audience intervened with questions and a debate on single wagons emerged into a lively discussion. It was stated that single/group of wagons still represent more then 50% of European Rail Freight volumes but this traffic is operated at a loss by incumbents with unsatisfactory service level to the customers. UIC suggested the promotion of a mixed working group operators/ stakeholders joining together for finding adequate solutions. The customers declared that the market is still in the hand of incumbents and no effective competition is yet possible. Another limiting factor was identified in the difficult access to hubs and terminals. The empty wagons repositioning, was cited as an element of rail inefficiency together with the inability of incumbents of selling services at marginal prices when repositioning wagons. However it was confirmed that empty running exist also in road modality for percentages which are not negligible. Therefore this is not a reason for not being competitive. All speakers and the audience agreed at the conclusion of this panel discussion that the introduction of an effective competition is the name of the game for serving the modern rail market needs both in intermodal and conventional traffic.

After debating the issues of Panel 1 Mr. Franco Castagnetti, the NEWOPERA project coordinator, delivered a keynote speech summarising the results of the NEWOPERA project achieved so far in the different work packages and gave indication of the tasks yet to be completed. He invited the audience to join the final NEWOPERA conference later this year when the NEWOPERA final document incorporating all results, will be published and presented.

The Panel 2 moderated by Mr. Johannes Ludewig-CER Executive Director tackled the question of how rail freight can cope with the predicted growth of freight demand in the next years against a lack of infrastructure. The freight dedicated line concept means, finding a solution to overcome the conflict between passenger and freight traffic using the same rail track. This conflict hampers the performance of high service levels and hinders it from being competitive against road. Mr. Ludewig, clearly stated that rail freight needs concrete and quick decisions in the member states otherwise Europe will never be able to cope with the increasing transport demand. "We need a coordinated behaviour of investments on a regional or on corridor’s level; we have a European problem but national competences. Considering the limited financial resources available the coordination of priorities becomes paramount". The debate indicated that the training and education of rail personnel on international operating rules, languages, services and logistics culture, is an issue to be resolved. The challenge here, is to make Rail Freight Services more attractive for customers.

The optimisation of existing infrastructure is a must since the removal of bottlenecks, new investments in rail infrastructures and new tunnels will take decades whereas Europe has a necessity to have at disposal additional capacity as from now. Consequently the increase in productivity of the existing rail tracks using longer and heavier trains and improvement in interoperability are the immediate response to the capacity problem. Rail Freight is clearly a European issue and failing to find adequate solution in generating new rail freight capacity with new investments in infrastructures, the effects will be further industry delocalisation and ultimately higher unemployment. The politicians do not seem to realise this direct correlation between cargo mobility the need of generating capacity through investments in rail infrastructures as advocated by the "Primary European Rail Freight Network" the effect of unemployment and the quality of life of European citizens.

In Panel 3 Moderated by Mrs Barbara Barnes- from UK Network Rail, the market players discussed how to eliminate barriers for improving rail freight. It was particularly mentioned that operators should be looking at rail freight as a fast developing and profitable business and more optimism should be projected in the market place. However it emerged from the debate that rail freight operators cannot rely on a stable framework to plan long-term investments particularly on locomotives. They need a situation of stability for planning their activities for the next 10-20 years. All speakers agreed that a freight Master-plan for Europe is needed to achieve the same level playing field in all member states. Investments in infrastructure, the harmonisation of interfaces and fair access to track and terminals are the main current market barriers. In the member states where these conditions were implemented, the railway services have indeed made huge progress and rail freight became a positive and profitable business. However in the end the players recognised that - besides the external framework - the mentality within the sector must be modernised. "We often just run trains instead of providing logistics services" one of the panel members remarked. This more modern approach toward market is capable of generating customers values opposed to the cost of service. The panel discussed also the issue of relationship between operators and infrastructure managers and it was agreed that these relationships are improving. The final objective is for infrastructure managers not discriminating the access to the infrastructure. Different infrastructure charges reflecting Countries diversities are not perceived as hindering factors so long these charges remain fixed for a long period of time. It was also mentioned that when subsidies are granted by institutions to facilitate the start of new rail freight or intermodal operations, these must be for a short period of time and for specific objectives. When these conditions are not respected the risk is that these subsidies could become an element of distortion of the competition game and ultimately a market barrier.

The Panel 4 moderated by Mr. Armand Toubol of SNCF, introduced new market players in the Rail Freight business. New logistics service providers (LSPs) are facilitators between the owner of the cargo and the transport modes, for creating a qualitative and efficient service. These LSPs consider rail, especially in the intermodal sector, as a very competitive mode of transport. Unfortunately the single wagon business is still in the hand of incumbents and therefore rarely accessible for new actors. In particular LSPs, integrators, forwarding agents, with an international network, are capable of offering the customers a variety of rail freight products, suitable to customers needs. The representative of the Port of Hamburg, stated that railways became an excellent partner to handle its growing container traffic. Investments are currently being made in Hamburg to double the existing rail volumes. However service quality is paramount. The risk is that failing to produce the service quality needed by the customers, this traffic might choose other modalities such as Road or Feeder services. The LSPs confirmed that they are trying innovative solutions for minimising industrial risk and extract profitability. Solutions such as mixed trains putting together conventional and intermodal traffic on a given corridor have demonstrated to be of great importance and very effective. In order to handle these trains that are capable of generating the critical mass, LSPs stated the need of investing in regional rail ports or dry ports. The cooperation between different actors in order to bundle traffic to reach an industrial scale, was indicated as being an innovative approach. The panel reinforced the need of new Rail Freight capacity being generated through investments in infrastructure as advocated by the NEWOPERA project. To this effect the Spanish case was cited. Spain has the opportunity of implementing a Priority Rail Freight Network given that the parallel new infrastructure dedicated to passengers, is nearing completion. This opportunity must not be lost. The risk here is that, should Rail Freight fail to saturate this available capacity, regional passengers trains services could occupy the old lines too. This concern emerged also during previous panels discussion.

The conclusions of the conference were drawn by Mr. Franco Castagnetti. He underlined the positive mood between the stakeholders. He expressed his optimism that despite the complexity of harmonising the rail freight system, the conference showed the necessity of adopting best practices, innovative solutions and new impetus on the changes to be made. "We have to look at the future which offers indeed a great potential. To exploit this potential a big collective and coordinated effort by all stakeholders is necessary".

For any other additional information please contact:
franco.castagnetti@newopera.org

Attached presentations and files

• New Opera: Increasing Rail Market Share in Rail Freight Dedicated Lines Concept - Franco Castagnetti, 2.5MiB PDF download

4th New OPERA Stakeholders' Conference - 23rd January 2008

Posted: 9 November 2007

Dear Madam / Sir,

We cordially want to invite you to the 4th New Opera stakeholders’ conference on the following theme:

The market opening and the perspective of increasing rail market share in a rail freight dedicated lines concept

23rd of January 2008

Conference Centre Albert Borschette / Salle AB-OA
Rue Froissart, 36 – 1040 Brussels

Please note that attendance is FREE OF Charge. If you would like to participate we kindly ask you to register before 11 January 2008. Please find an updated agenda, registration form and a map how to reach the conference centre linked below.

The conference will be opened by Enrico Grillo–Pasquarelli, Director DG TREN, and Georg Jarzembowski, MEP. Speakers include amongst others Johannes Ludewig, Executive Director of CER; Peter Sonnabend, Marketing Manager DHL; Olaf Krüger, Director of Central Management European Traffic of Kühne & Nagel and IBS President; Emilio Fernandez, Chairman Transfesa; Jürgen Sorgenfrei, Chairman of Marketing Board of Port of Hamburg; and several CEOs of railway and logistics companies.

The day is organised in four panel discussions around the following subjects:

• Modern rail market needs - intermodality and conventional traffic
• How to increase market share in a rail freight dedicated lines concept
• Eliminating barriers for market opening & infrastructure charging systems
• New actors in innovative rail freight services: Freight integrators – optimizers – consolidators – logistics operators – forwarders – infomediaries...

We look forward to welcoming you on 23rd of January 2008!

With kind regards,

Helene Köpf

International Technical Affairs Manager
Rolling Stock and Integrated Rail Systems

UNIFE - The European Railway Industries
221, Avenue Louise
B-1050 Brussels
Phone : +32 2 643 70 81
Mobile : +32 496 164 908
Please visit us at: www.unife.org

Attached files

• Conference Invitation - 280KiB PDF download
• Hotels List - 80KiB PDF download
• Agenda - 424KiB PDF download
• Map - 80KiB PDF download
• Registration Form - 328KiB PDF download

Great Success for the New Opera Conference : Rail Freight Dedicated Lines : From Dream to Reality

Posted: 31 January 2007

New Opera 3rd stakeholders; conference: "Rail Freight Dedicated Lines: From Dream to Reality" gathered in Brussels on over 100 participants on the 24th January. It was a great occasion to have all interested parties of the freight issues to discuss the interest and the support that a concept of rail freight dedicated/preferential lines is having in Europe.

The conference was officially opened by Dr. Enrico Grillo-Pasquarelli, Director of Inland Transport, Directorate E, who gave an outline of EU Commission policies on cargo mobility. He indicated the expectations from of the European Commission for the NewOpera and similar projects focusing on rail freight dedicated/preferential lines.

Following the theme of the conference "Dedicated Lines: From Dream to Reality", Franco Castagnetti, the New Opera Project Manager presented a 2020 European freight mobility scenario assuming that most of the discoveries, technological innovations, network assignment and investments are materialised. As a result, a new rail freight economy would be developed by then.

After this projection in the future, Mr. Castagnetti presented the essential of the New Opera's researchers' results carried out under the different work packages.

The themes developed were multi fold:

• commercial contents, concentrated on describing "New trade patterns", "Future trends", "New traction patterns", "Migration strategies and stepwise scenario", "Market segmentation and logistics services", "Intermodal Inter-industries", "Ports interconnections and flows", "Emerging actors and vision for new products"
• Technical and operating nature, made researches on "Hardware technologies", "Software technologies", "Training and new operating rules", "Demand and supply assessment" and "Network assignment".

Several questions from the audience were answered especially on the time gap between now and 2020 and what is needed to realise the envisaged 2020 scenario.

After the main NewOpera presentation, two round tables presented two different market situations. The first one focused on overland European Rail Freight Traffic and the second one on Maritime Related Rail Freight Traffic to and from major European destinations.

Several questions were addressed to the two panels in relation to the points of strength and weakness of the two systems.

The conclusion of the conference was drawn by Dr. Theodor Schlickmann, NewOpera DG TREN Scientific Officer, who confirmed that a demonstrator will be needed to support the NewOpera principles. This demonstrator will be launched in 2008 under the FP7.

During the conference, several important elements came out as a clear indication from the stakeholders and the market:

1. All expressed the need for a rail freight network capable of dealing with rail freight traffic in a more industrial way to support inter-European traffic and inland distribution from major European ports.
2. The main industrial customers have indicated their availability to support rail freight and intermodality provided that the services available are brought to a level of excellence capable of supporting the challenges of a globalised economy and an increased supply chain sophistication.
3. The rail freight economy needs a new business culture and a new business model based on open market access and free. Several new comers have already entered the market establishing joint ventures and new collaborative approaches.
4. The road on its own finds it more and more difficult to support the European traffic demand. This is mainly the case-in the areas of greater traffic concentration such as ports and major industrial districts. Revitalising rail freight becomes a European necessity to keep the flows of cargo moving.
5. The investments in infrastructure by their own will not be sufficient to attract additional traffic to rail. These investments needs to be supported by the elimination of many existing artificial and cultural barriers, and by the creation of a variety of new services distributed through a multi-channel marketing approach based on OSS concept. This is in contradiction with the concept of mono-product and mono-channel prevailing today that are inadequate to support-a European economy developed on a differentiated service culture.

Attached files

• New Opera event presentation - 840 KiB PDF download

3rd New OPERA Stakeholders' Conference - 24th January 2007

Posted: 28 November 2006

Dear Madam, Sir,

On behalf of the New Opera project, I have great pleasure in inviting you to the 3rd New Opera Stakeholder's Conference on the following theme:

RAIL FREIGHT DEDICATED LINES: FROM DREAM TO REALITY

In the Mid-term review of the EU White Paper on transport, the European Commission took action by developing a framework strategy for freight transport and logistics in Europe. The Directorate-General for Energy and Transport, started working on rail freight revitalisation with a Consultation Document initiative on the progressive implementation of a rail freight-oriented network.

The New Opera project, which started in January 2005 under the EU 6th Framework programme, has the objective of supporting, through its research, the European Commission's recommendations for revitalising the rail freight sector.

The rail operating companies will be able to attract business only if they offer products/services, capable of satisfying customers' supply chain needs. This is why our 3rd New Opera Stakeholders' conference will be structured in two parts.

The first one dedicated to the NewOpera 2006 achievements and findings.

The second one dedicated to debates in two thematic round tables. These will involve various stakeholders' categories including, customers, rail freight companies, ports, intermodal companies, shipping lines, private rail operators and infrastructure managers.

For more information about the New Opera project, please visit our website: www.newopera.org.

I kindly invite you to take part to this event, in order not to miss the opportunity for giving your input and contribution towards the improvement of freight mobility in Europe. This is affecting our daily life and it will be affecting the one of future generations.

With kind regards,

Franco Castagnetti
Project Coordinator

Attached files

• Tulip Inn Booking Form - 112 KiB PDF download
• Crowne Plaza Booking Form - 96 KiB PDF download
• Agenda leaflet, page 1 - 256 KiB PDF download
• Agenda leaflet, page 2 - 680 KiB PDF download
• Registration Form - 92 KiB Microsoft Word download

Announcement: The New Opera second newsletter is available!

Posted: 1 June 2006

The second NEW Opera newsletter has been published and is available upon request. You can also download it from the link below, together with the full text of the statement from Mr. Schlickmann, Project Officer.

Attached files

• Second New OPERA newsletter - 804 KiB PDF download
• Statement from Mr. Schlickmann - 120 KiB PDF download

Great success for the 2nd NEW OPERA Stakeholders' Conference

Posted: 20 January 2006

On the 20th of January 2006, the European Freight & Logistics Leaders Forum and UNIFE (Association of the European Railway Industry) organised the 2nd New Opera Stakeholders' Conference in Brussels. The conference was very successful and attended by over 80 participants representing the leading European industries and service providers.

The purpose of the Conference was to present the Stakeholders and the European Commission the results of the first year into the New Opera Project.

Mr. Franco Castagnetti, the New Opera project coordinator, chaired the meeting, while the various task leaders illustrated their achievements to an interested audience.

Mrs. Catherine Prudhomme and Mr. Theodor Schlickmann, the Project's Scientific Officer, representing DG Transport & Energy, made statements on the situation and progress of the European Transport Policy and elaborated on their expectations from New Opera as well as from other connected projects.

The debate with the audience concentrated on the strategic vision of the concept of European Rail Freight Network. The main characteristics were the projected future rail freight links towards Asia interconnecting Europe with the Transiberian line and central Europe directly by rail into China.

This development toward the East will bring a totally new dimension to the future Rail freight perspectives headed to capture the important flows emerging from the new trade patterns. This new rail freight network encompasses the lines already decided by the E.U. TEN T priority corridors and is set in the years to come to bring substantial relief to the existing congested European trade lanes, adding the much needed rail carrying capacity for the future European economic development.

Additionally to the new trade patterns, the supply chain research on the customers' needs has been developed as well as the new traction patterns following the opening of the rail market implemented by the E.U. 3 railway packages.

The next stakeholders' conference will take place one year from now. Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any queries!

Attached files

• Introductory Presentation - 13.5MiB PDF download
• New OPERA Newsletter 1 - November 2005 - 820KiB PDF download
• Presence Sheet - 64KiB PDF download

New OPERA Stakeholders' meeting

Posted: 1 July 2005

The First New OPERA Stakeholders' meeting was held in Brussels on the 1st July 2005. An article by Mr. Franco Castagnetti follows; also attached is a presentation in Microsoft Powerpoint format:

• NEW-OPERA workshop July 1 versione 2.ppt - 2.3MiB download

European Rail Freight Stakeholders demonstrate great interest in New OPERA!

Posted: 1 July 2005

Six months after the Kick-off, the New OPERA Consortium organised their first public conference in Brussels to inform more than 60 rail freight stakeholders about the objectives and progress of this ambitious European research project on dedicated rail freight networks, and to obtain valuable input and feedback from the stakeholder audience.

Mr Jan Scherp of the European Commission introduced the New OPERA project as an important milestone towards competitive rail freight services. New OPERA can be seen as complementary to the regulative approach of the European Commission to trigger the modal change, with a special focus on high-performance rail freight infrastructure. Mr Scherp invited the stakeholders to give their input to this innovative idea.

After the introduction, Mr Franco Castagnetti (F&L, New OPERA overall project coordinator) presented the project outline and together with Mr Patrick Chatelet (Alstom Transport, WP2 Leader) made an update about the first work packages achievements.

The heart of the conference was the lively discussion between the two panels of experts and the stakeholder audience:

The first panel was dedicated to the market expectations of both transport service providers and industrial customers in a borderlss European market in terms of cost, service, speed and quality. The panel was moderated by Mr Franco Castagnetti and included as experts Mr Emilio Fernandez from Transfesa, Mr Jose Kauffmann from Procter & Gamble, Mr Bernard Lux from Volkswagen Transport, Mr Stefan Sundin from Stora Enso and Mr Joost van de Kar from EWALS Cargo Care.

The panel underlined the strong need for customising rail freight transport, i.e. faster, more frequent and on-time deliveries, allowing the high street distribution to concentrate on sales space instead of warehouse space. The velocity and Supply Chain sophistication together with the last mile distribution problems require more advanced logistic solutions. Today, the common lack of customisation in rail freight drives clients of transport services still more and more towards the choice of road transport, frustrating the European Commission effort towards alternative modalities. Consequently, a Step Change from the existing practices, and a New Rail Economy must be imagined and implemented if we want to bring back cargo from road to rail.

A proof of the changes necessary to regain cargo for rail services is provided by the new private rail companies, which by admission of their customers provide a better service quality and react faster to market needs than the traditional ones. This is due to the fact that incumbent operators focus mostly on their passenger services, to which they give both financial and operational priority. Dedicated rail freight lines should represent the necessary tool for the traditional operators and new comers to introduce new rail freight services, new products, new perfomances, and a new marketing approach in line with their customers' needs.

The debate of the first panel with the audience continued identifying in addition to intermodality, a big market segment represented by the single wagon users. Many participants agreed that the acquisition of the single wagon traffic would boost rail freight and make it more flexible, competitive, and accessible to new industrial sectors, particularly small and medium sized industries. The single wagon market has been abandoned by the traditional rail companies, and to bring it back, it will be necessary to create optimisers to achieve an industrial dimension exactly in the same way as it has happened in the last 15 years with Intermodality. Both Intermodality and single wagons could exploit the enormous opportunities offered by globalisation and the changing patterns of trade brought about by influx of cargo from the Far East.

A new rail Infrastructure bringing a totally new dimension of Rail Services is needed to change from a demand driven driven into an offer driven approach and to prmote a new rail economy serving the new market needs. This appears to be the answer to solve the road congestion, which costs ca. 1% of the EU's annual GDP. The modal shift represents a necessity against road congestion but also a more economical and sustainable form of cargo mobility. The difficul part is to achieve short term improvements on the existing rail networks already congested by its own with its operativity further aggravated by the presence of freight and passengers competing for the same track. New Investments are needed to make the rail system more efficient and effective recovering decades of neglect and for this reason the recovery will have to be based on a medium - long term horizon, hoping that new technologies, increased efficiency and productivity can ripe benefits also on the short term.

The second panel discussed the topic of a new emerging rail freight economy in terms of new products and services, market segmentation, intermodality, port connections and new actors as well as the network approach with regard to potential future rail freight corridors and their scenario evolution. This panel was moderated by Mr Armand Toubol from ERMEWA and included as experts Mr Ricardo Albelda from Vossloh, Mr Michel Gaspard from RFF, Ms Jessica Lagerstedt from Bombardier Transportation, Ms Silvia Rivolta from CEMAT, Mr Peter Sonnabend from DHL and Mr Hans-Hermann Zander from Siemens TS.

A challenge for rail freight operators is to increase their efficiency from the point of view of infrastructure pricing as well as the management of their rolling stock. Stoppage times must be reduced, terminals must be developed and customers must be given the possibility to leave their merchandise at the rail terminals when needed, hence providing a distinct advantage against road. The introduction of a gateway system as well as the cooperation of different railway operators among each other can support this development.

With regard to the discussion about a dedicated rail freight network, it must be said that in some countries lines predominately dedicated to freight already exist, however, the lack of connections between themselves hinder their productivity. Priority of freight in comparison to passenger traffic is still very low and untill this conflict is resolved it will be very difficult to manage freight trains according to a proper time table which is a basic market requirement for freight to go back to rail. As immediate steps to be taken to increase efficiency, special freight windows such as night times and off-peak hours should be clearly dedicated to freight. The mix of different speeds on the same rail track is moreover reducing considerably the capacity avaliable for commercial exploitation.

Rail freight traction solutions focus mainly on the use of either diesel or electrical locomotives. The advantages and disadvantages of both systems were discussed and evaluated with regard to infrastructure cost, environmental impact, maintenance cost as well as operational and loading constraints. Dual energy locomotives are already an operating option to cut idle time at the border and should this technical innovation prove to be successful, this could represent an important step in the right direction towards achieving better performances both from an economic as well an environmental point of view.