The theme of insurance is still a fairly recent focus of interest in the railway industry, only arising since the liberalisation of the rail transport sector in Europe, which has been and in some cases still is being implemented at different speeds since the start of the 1 0s in the various countries belonging to the EU.

Since the 1990s insurance has been growing steadily in importance for the railways. In general, stateowned railways were not insured, and there are still considerable differences between the levels of insurance in place for publicly-owned rail operators. It can be said with certainty, however, that the further the state withdraws from its role as shareholder in the old public railways, the more important it becomes to deal with this matter. For private railway companies insurance has always been vital, simply to guarantee their survival. There are also legal provisions requiring insurance to be taken out, in particular to cover public liability.

Interview with Johannes Ludewig, CER Executive Director
by Przemysław Myszka

The European rail industry is facing many challenges deriving from the very nature of this demanding business but also related to unfair or short-sighted policies. We talk with Johannes Ludewig about the potential of rail sector to overcome such difficulties as well as to discuss the possible paths of rail evolution and their social and environmental impacts.

 The Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies is looking forward to discussions on private capital being invested in railways. Exactly what sort of private capital will be interested in financing the rail industry?

Direct state funding must remain the norm in the vast majority of cases. The cost of capital is typically greater in the private sector and transport projects (not only rail but also road for example) require public funding for economic reasons – very long pay-back periods; indirect benefits of transport for all of society – and for social reasons – national cohesion or social policy. To the extent that private capital is used, CER foresees a role for Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) that include state co-financing in order to reduce the required level of borrowing and its cost. There is also a strong case for considering the use of “shadow tolls” (i.e. the user charges are partly or wholly covered by the state, not by the users). Private capital in transport is most often found for high-traffic premium lines, e.g. high-speed lines, links to airports, possibly new links to seaports. However, a ‘complete system’ view is necessary and governments need to take their responsibility in this respect. There are bottlenecks that need to be removed and there is a general need for higher quality and higher capacity across existing networks. PPPs could also be used in such cases provided they are based on shadow tolls. This is an issue that governments need to think about.

In order to improve availability and reliability of freight wagons it is necessary to implement conditionbased maintenance. The CargoCBM research group is developing a system to make this a reality.

As the exchange of goods within the European Union is increasing and worldwide trade is intensifying, a significant growth in goods traffic can be expected in the next few years. The most recent appraisals estimate that the traffic in goods transportation (tonnes transported multiplied by distance, in tonne/km) will increase in Germany by 69% from 2005 to 2030 and by 110% by 2050. Transit traffic is expected to increase by 136% by 2030 and by 214% by 2050. However, the proportion regarding rail and barge is not supposed to be substantially higher and still only accounts for 27%, while 70% belongs to traf- fic transportation. These trends are unlikely to change without improvements made in general conditions.