Railway companies set out on separate tracks

Date: 01/10/1998

By Chris Johnstone

EUROPE's railway companies are showing the first signs of splitting down the middle under the pressure of EU legislation, with businesses operating track and those running the trains starting to go their separate ways.

Infrastructure companies, headed by the UK's Railtrack and Channel Tunnel operator Eurotunnel, met last week for the first time to swap experiences and discuss a future joint strategy.

More meetings are planned between the track operators, although a full breakaway from the firms offering train and cargo services is not planned at the moment. "We are looking to see what we can do on our own at the same time as working in partnership with other organisations," said a spokesman for Railtrack. "It is too early to say what the next steps will be."

A wider separation between the two sides of the rail industry would be welcomed by the European Commission, which is trying to encourage a clear-cut division between railways' train and track operations to encourage newcomers to launch services in competition with existing monopolies.

Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock, speaking at the first meeting of the infrastructure companies, welcomed the prospect of them taking a more independent line. "I hope that the collective voice of infrastructure managers will be heard more in the future," he said. "Infrastructure companies want to make the optimal use of their assets and will find it easier to embrace some of the changes that have been set out."

Railtrack and its European counterparts are for the moment retaining their membership of the traditional lobby group for Europe's railway industry, the Community of European Railways (CER), which represents both track and train companies.

But Kinnock said some of the internal differences within the CER meant it had been unable to comment on key proposals when the Commission unveiled its latest views on setting the level of fees transport companies should pay for road or rail use.

The Commission argues that when train and track operations are combined, railways have a schizophrenic concern not only about the number of trains on the track but also whose trains they are. It says that on their own, infrastructure operators would simply concentrate on boosting the number of trains using the track.

The clearest splits between track and train operations so far have taken place in Scandinavia and the UK, with many southern European countries, especially Italy, dragging their feet in meeting the Commission's demands.