Technology is not the problem
The interoperability of Europe’s railway systems is an ongoing issue for many players in the industry. What is lacking; what needs to be done – the opinions of the various partners in the Austrian railway sector differ.
In order to make different European railway systems operable across borders there is a need to establish common standards, to make the necessary investments in railway infrastructure and for a clearly-discernible political will to provide the necessary financial resources.
“From the technical point of view we’ve got a plethora of possibilities today to advance interoperability – but operationally we haven’t yet reached our goal. We see this in the markets, among our customers and with our users,” as Hannes Boyer, CEO of Thales Austria, says on the basis of his experiences. One of his challenges is to bring operational interoperability to his customers, with the greatest benefit for all parties.
Too much is done off their own bat
Wolfgang Röss, Siemens Austria’s head of transport, freight and railway automation, takes a similar view. “Interoperability is not a technical problem, actually; there aren’t any more hurdles on this front. The concomitant political decisions have also already been taken. But the fact is that the railways have a physical inventory outside, in their fleet on the line. It’s there that we have to embed interoperability. That can’t be done overnight.”
Many railway companies have already optimised their processes on their own initiative and feel committed to these optimisation measures. Röss adds that “this is where change has to begin, withthe overarching aim of creating an overall uniform framework for rail operations throughout Europe.”
Politicians moving too little
The Austrian industrialist and CEO of Kapsch Carriercom, Kari Kapsch, has one heretical opinion. “The railways in Europe are already fully interoperable, because otherwise no train could travel from the north to the south or from the west to the east. I’d call the railway system interoperable. What is needed is still a little optimisation here and there. The problem that I’ve ascertained is the speed of investment, and that’s where we come to the politics of the issue. The various states repeatedly emphasise how friendly the railways are towards the environment, but on the investment side we simply have to do much more than we do today. Sluggish investment is the problem.”
Kapsch pleads for a strengthening of the European Railway Agency (ERA). It should break down the wishes of the International Union of Railways (UIC) to the legislative level, which should then manifest itself in the form of regulations for the countries concerned.
RCG boss is sceptical
From a carrier’s point of view, everything that has happened in recent years under the heading of interoperability has just cost a lot of money. “We’re no closer to interoperability today than we were before, it’s just that the level of non-interoperability has risen,” Clemens Först, the CEO of the Rail Cargo Group, says soberly.
The way in which the lack of interoperability in Europe is compensated for is through investment by the railways themselves. They invest in multi-system locomotives to become interoperable, for example. Först explains that “the current situation is not satisfactory because interoperability does not exist in technical and infrastructural terms.”
The manager is sceptical as to whether interoperability will be much better, because there are no satisfactory trends towards standardisation. “Even if we get technical interoperability up and running in five to ten years, there are still many questions to be answered in terms of standards, regulations and processes.”
No benefits for carriers
Since the pathway to large-scale interoperability is still rather long, the question arises as to what measures can be taken to achieve success in a shorter period. In the short term this could only be achieved in the operational area.
Handover procedures for trains at borders could be simplified, for example. A common language would also represent a good approach. The general European public is aware that a lot of money is currently being invested in infrastructure.
“But the fact is that interoperability has so far been at the expense of carriers, who have to invest a lot of money to become more interoperable. But high infrastructure investments have brought the carriers no noticeable advantages so far,” as Först adds.
If firms manage to implement simplified systems and also succeed in rolling out standards faster than before, then quick and easy benefits can be attained, Boyer underlines. Kapsch, in contrast, remains sceptical. “There are no easy gains on issues that benefit the railways. If we want to tackle the big challenges in operations management, then we’re talking about decades, not months or years.”
