The Romanian transport minister Radu Miruță has signed an order solidifying the rail access rules for traffic heading into the Port of Constanta. Miruță hopes that the measure will improve the circulating of rolling stock. No more wagons standing still, acting as “warehouses on wheels”.
Miruță’s order “limits to zero the possibility of an unscheduled freight train entering the Port of Constanta before a scheduled one”, according to the minister himself. The measure should impose a sense of discipline in port rail traffic by enforcing observance of the schedule.
Whereas “friendly” trains, in the words of the minister, were on occasion allowed to enter the port before other trains, this practice should now come to an end. A phone call is not going to help your train enter the port earlier anymore, says Miruță. Doing so will lead to a cancellation of your port loading slot and a penalty.
“Yes, some people are upset by this order, but discipline is not done by letting the clever ones grow and the honest ones fall”, the minister wrote on Facebook.
Sanctions if the rail freight operator is to blame
Train operators will need to reckon with more stringent punctuality rules in the port from now on. If a train wants to enter the port off-schedule, then the operator can expect a sanction. This does not apply if the infrastructure manager is at fault for the delay.
Ultimately, the order should resolve the issue of wagons getting stuck in the port. Their circulation should improve. “Wagons had become warehouses on wheels”, says Miruță, “Some [trains] were scheduled, arrived in the port entrance area, but they were kept there because some ships […] took over trains out of turn, in front of those called before and [that were] already there.”