When politicians talk about rail, you can usually be sure that they are talking about passenger trains. For that reason, an invitation to attend a rail roundtable in the Dutch parliament was an opportunity not to be missed for the European Rail Freight Association (ERFA). It took the chance to share some of rail freight’s concerns with curious parliamentarians.
Conor Feighan, general secretary of ERFA that represented the organisation in the Hague, is pleased that rail freight was invited. “Usually, there is political attention only for passenger traffic, because containers don’t vote”, Feighan says.
Getting the rail freight message out in the Dutch political echelons is an important step forward. After all, the Netherlands, with its Rotterdam port, is an important European logistics hub.
The bigger picture
However, explaining the needs of rail freight is not only about making rail freight work, says Feighan. “How do we ensure all modes of transport are working effectively? That is an important question to solve.” One of his main messages to parliament is that we also need to ensure that ports’ hinterlands work.
“For example, container ships have grown immensely in recent decades. How do we handle that? Rail freight has a role to play there”, says Feighan. A single freight train, with the right economies of scale, can replace 40 trucks and boost logistics efficiency.
Moreover, ERFA highlighted that there needs to be international coordination, together with the rail freight industry, to maximise the amount of traffic during infrastructure works. Those often reduce logistical capacity on key routes.
The German infrastructure works on a key route just across the Dutch border are a case in point. Those will last for 80 weeks and were plagued by a lack of coordination between the two countries.
Flexibility
Feighan also points to the need for more short-term paths for rail freight operators. Currently, operators are bound by a system that mostly accommodates passenger traffic. “You can predict when you need a passenger train from Amsterdam to leave for another town in five years from now. It does not work like that with freight”, explains Feighan.
“If Maersk decides to take freight to Rotterdam instead of Hamburg and asks an operator what it can do, then the operator might well say: ‘We’re out of capacity’. We need to get to a system where there is more flexibility.” In other words, rail freight operators need to be able to get timeslots on a more short-term basis to meet ever-changing supply chain demands.
ERFA also made sure to emphasise the need for a coordinated deployment of ERTMS, ensuring that rail companies do not have to “bear all the financial burden of getting equipped with ERTMS while receiving no clear benefits from this deployment”.
Parking fees
Lastly, with the Netherlands’ sky-high parking fees for rail, Feighan singled out this issue as well. “Operators do not want to have their trains standing still”, he says. “Parking trains is more the symptom of problems along the network than railway companies that deliberately want to stop their trains.” For that reason, the Hague should seek to get rid of current pricing.
The ERFA secretary general reflects positively on the roundtable discussion. “There was definitely a sense of general curiosity and interest from politicians.” The long-term goals for 2040 are one thing, but parliamentarians were also keen to find out what can be done in the short term.
It has been a challenge for the rail freight sector to get Dutch politics on its side. Ministerial policy plans have been disappointing due to a lack of tangible proposals for meaningful change. Recent parliamentary votes neither brought a prospect for financial relief.