Action stations for rail freight freeway début

Date: 03/04/1997

By Bruce Barnard

EUROPE's first rail freight 'freeway' could be open in June, giving a powerful boost to long-stalled plans to shift cargo from congested highways on to under-utilised rail tracks.

The freeway concept, pioneered by Transport Com-missioner Neil Kinnock, will make its début on an overnight service between the port of Rotterdam and Milan, if EU officials can remove remaining obstacles in time.

The freeway would mark the start of a revolution, providing the railway industry with an 11th- hour opportunity to reverse the steady decline in its share of the European freight market.

Firms licensed to operate on the freeway could use their own locomotives and freight wagons, hire their own drivers and set their own tariffs. At present, locomotives and drivers are changed at borders and even the most humble commuter service takes precedence over international freight trains.

Transport officials from the four countries most committed to the freeways - Austria, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands - will meet European Commission officials next Wednesday (9 April) to outline plans for the new service, which could also include a link with Antwerp.

After months of computer simulations, experts from a freeway task force have plotted a 'path' through the dense European rail network for a service that can beat trucking.

The goal is to get the scheme running by the time Europe's railway timetables change in June, according to Helmut Draxler, chairman of Austrian Railways and head of the task force. He added that the first freeway could carry between 6 and 8 million tonnes of freight every year.

The task force will recommend 'one-stop shopping', with a single manager in charge of the freeway, and has already lined up an Italian group for the job.

The Rotterdam-Milan freeway would mark an unexpected breakthrough in the Commission's flagging road-to-rail campaign.

News of the imminent opening of the first freeway comes only weeks after transport ministers from Austria, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands told Kinnock they would explore the concept.

The announcement took industry executives by surprise. “The idea is realistic ... but I am not so sure about the timetable,” said John Padalino, managing director of NDX Intermodal, an Amsterdam-based joint venture between CSX Corp, the largest US railroad company, and Deutsche Bahn NS Cargo, the Dutch rail-freight operator.

The task force will urge the Commission to ensure the freeway is not strangled by red tape and bureaucratic bungling. Rather than waiting for an agreement on standard track fees and regulations across the EU, it will argue that the Commission should promote a simple user fee to enable a speedy launch.

The Rotterdam-Milan route will provide a convenient launch pad for the freeway concept because it is one of the busiest freight routes in the EU.

The Commission has also promoted, as a role model, a pioneering independent Rotterdam-Milan rail shuttle operated by three container shipping lines: Sea Land, a unit of CSX Corp, the Anglo-Dutch P&O-Nedlloyd group; Denmark's Maersk Line; and NS Cargo.

This service, however, like others between Rotterdam and Germany operated by the group, is dependent on conventional railway operators and takes second place to passenger services.

Draxler said widespread opposition from local politicians to changing timetables for commuter and regional trains to make way for freight services presented one of the biggest threats to the freeways. Despite their support for greater use of trains for freight, most EU countries, including Germany, gave priority to passengers.

But the freeways fans are not dismayed. “I think we can get the [Rotterdam-Milan] service running by June and, if not, definitely by August,” said Draxler.

The task force plans to plot eight more North-South freeway paths by the end of the year linking Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria and Italy. In addition, it is considering an East-West axis connecting the northern German ports of Bremen and Hamburg with Hungary, Poland and even Ukraine.