New perspectives for the South Eastern Region

It is widely known that the railway sector in South Eastern Europe has to handle a lot of challenges since the break-up of former Yugoslavia. Not only do government bodies and railways in the region have to face and accept them, but also their counterparts in the neighbouring countries have to be attentive and are requested to take part in the processing of these challenges. Therefore, ÖBB-Infrastruktur Betrieb AG, as part of the ÖBB Group, plays an active role in the South East European region.

All over Europe, well operated rail corridors become more and more important for rail infrastructure managers as well as railway undertakings. In other words, rail corridors are going to be substantial lifelines for railway business.

ARGE Corridor X

One of the most important contributions of ÖBB-Infrastruktur Betrieb AG in the South Eastern European Region is to operate ARGE Corridor X which is an active and sophisticated linked up partnership of ten railways along Pan-European Corridor X.

Origins

Our railways partnership, ARGE Corridor X, was founded in 2001 based on a Memorandum of Understanding with the aim of future-oriented cooperation of Central and South Eastern European railway companies. It is an Austrian civil law partnership (Ges. b. R.) headquartered in Vienna. The decisions taken at the 2nd Pan-European Conference of Crete (March 1994) and the 3rd Pan-European Conference at Helsinki (June 1997) provided the basis for the foundation of the ARGE.

Our Mission

All our members have just one vision and therefore we pool all our strengths in order to enhance the attractiveness and quality of the transport routes that connect people from Central Europe to South Eastern Europe and the Asian continent (up to Middle and Far East Countries such as India or China). Our mission is to connect and strengthen our regions by selective marketing and research projects to ensure that people and goods in Europe, which is growing together more and more, can be transported safely, economically and quickly to their destinations.

Organisation

The supreme decision body of our partnership is the General Assembly. It currently comprises of our ten members. At least one, but normally two meetings per calendar year are convened. At this point we’d like to emphasise that ARGE Corridor X is always willing to cooperate with object-oriented partners not only out of the group of rail infrastructure managers or railway undertakings, but also other companies on the rail traffic market. If you are reading this and feel addressed by our proposal, please do not hesitate to contact us – for this purpose, we’d like to present our bodies and representatives in detail.

Members of the Presidium of ARGE Corridor X are Mr. Alfred Zimmermann, Chairman of the Board of Management of ÖBB-Infrastruktur Bau AG and Mr. Marijan Klariç, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Management of Croatian Railways HZ.
The Steering Committee is the operative body of ARGE Corridor X. Its members are responsible for representing the partnership vis-à-vis the public. The present Steering Committee is chaired by Mr. Harald Hotz who took over this position in July 2005. Further Members are Mr. Leon Orthaber from Slovenian Railways SZ and Mr. Mirko Martinko from Croatian Railways HZ. Their main focus is to take the demands of the market into account at the best possible rate. For that reason, ARGE Corridor X launched eight market projects at the beginning of 2006.

Market Projects

The chief aim of the Market Projects is to bring more traffic onto Corridor X. The ARGE members have had to nominate an employee for each single project team. The market projects focus on:

• State-of-the-art analyses
• Identification of market potentials
• Implementation of high-quality service offers for customers
• Definition of infrastructure investment priorities

To ensure a performance-minded processing of our Market Projects, we established a Market Task Force which is lead by Mr. Thomas Wimroither, ÖBB-Infrastruktur Betrieb AG.

Market Project 1: Cutting running times in timetables

• In comparison to the currently available train paths, improvements in running times of up to six hours between Salzburg and Halkali (Turkey) are possible. Further cuts in time will be possible by implementing the following measures:
• Accelerated customs clearance procedures at the borders
• Provision and use of efficient traction units
• Elimination of infrastructure problems (for example on single-track lines)
• Increased use of on-trust wagon handover
• Cutting stops en-route (in particular for operation purposes)
• Optimised tracking and tracing
• Higher priority for international paths

Our ambitious target is to reduce the transport time between Turkey and Austria to 48 hours (from approximately 65 hours at present). For passenger services on the route Germany-Austria-Slovenia-Croatia cuts in journey times starting from the timetable 2008 (applicable with effect from 9 December 2007) are planned to be realised as part of an overall concept.

Market Project 2: Corridor X product catalogue

This project is focused on new respectively better products by harmonising the existing national ones as well as creating new ones. Our target is to establish a product catalogue for the whole corridor as part of a corridor network statement in order to give our customers a clear overview of our products’ array.

Market Project 3: Corridor X network statement

In accordance with Market Project 2, we will provide an appealing description of commercial, technical and administrative conditions on the networks along Pan-European Corridor X with a common structure in order to facilitate international approach for the benefit of our customers.

Market Project 4: Assessment and exploitation of market potentials

Together with our customers we improve our market knowledge in order to forecast traffic flows in and through South Eastern Europe to be able to exploit market potentials more efficiently. The results will have influence on product development and measures to improve the capacity situation.

Market Project 5: Assessment of available infrastructure capacity

Having assessed the available infrastructure capacity and the actual number of trains, both section by section, a graphic presentation (a so-called capacity profile) shows the lack of remaining capacity and will provide decision input for infrastructure investments in accordance with the requirements of the transport market.

Market Project 6: Co-ordination of infrastructure investments

On the basis of Market Project 5, fitting infrastructure projects have to be defined and prioritised based on established criteria for evaluation purposes. The results will be externally communicated to relevant organisations and bodies.

Market Project 7: Cutting stops in border stations

In contrast to Market Project 1, this project aims at possible reductions in non-productive time which cannot be carried out by the members (i.e. the railways) alone, but with support and good will of ministries and authorities, e.g. in the fields of finance, customs and taxes, border security, agriculture and veterinary medicine. For this purpose an object-oriented dialogue with the relevant bodies is indispensable.

Market Project 8: Establishing one stop shops

In order to serve our customers is the best possible way, there is a strong need to establish One Stop Shops according to the principle ‘One face to the customer’ in order to reduce the expenditure of the costumer’s preparation and handling time to a minimum. Well-trained staff will be prepared to meet the requirements of our customers at the best possible rate.

Research projects

For many years, ARGE Corridor X has already been a member in different research projects. The research projects are focused on improving the technological and organisational processes of the rail system of the future which will also have an impact on South Eastern Europe. The projects currently underway are Infraclear, Catiemon and Integrail, all of which are co-funded by the European Commission.

New rolling motorway (ROLA) on Corridor X

The first Rolling Motorway Service (ROLA) between Wels (Austria) and Halkali (Turkey) will commence on 16 September 2006. The members of ARGE Corridor X are aware of the vital importance of this new and promising link between Central Europe and the Bosporus Region.

Slovenian Railways (SZ)

On 1 June 2006, Slovenian Railways received the first Siemens electric multi-system locomotive from the Euro Sprinter group. 19 more will be delivered before May 2007 and the total value of the newly purchased locomotives is approximately ?77.8 million. The Slovenian Railways are financing the purchase of these locomotives with a loan from Eurofima (European Company for the Financing of Railroad Rolling Stock). These locomotives are 4-axial, multi-systems and weigh 87 tonnes. They will be able to operate on tracks with different electrification systems – 3 kV DC voltage as well as both 15 kV and 25 AC voltages. They reach speeds of up to 200km/hr, have 6 MW power and the highest traction force is 300 kN. During braking the energy is returned to the railway network, so the locomotives are, without a shadow of a doubt, much better than the previous ones regarding energy efficiency. The new locomotives will be marked with the sign SZ541. Besides here in Slovenia, these new locomotives will be able to run on the German, Austrian, Croatian, Italian and Hungarian railway networks.

ÖBB Group

The new multi-system locomotive ‘Taurus 3’ 1216 will allow ÖBB-Traktion GmbH, for the first time, to perform transports on railway networks operating on DC power supply all across Europe – without having to change the locomotive at the borders. As a start, the new locomotive will be used in traffic with Italy and Slovenia. The engine’s potential area of operation covers some 1.5 million square-kilometres, an area 17 times bigger than Austria. On Corridor X, the engine could be used in both passenger and freight traffic from Germany via Austria to Macedonia and Bulgaria, respectively. This universal locomotive was designed based on the experience gained with the single-system locomotive 1016 and the dual-system locomotive 1116 as well as the latest state of the art in power electronics.

Technical data:

• Suitable for operation on railway lines with a system voltage of 15kV/16,7 Hz 25kV/50 Hz, and on railway lines with DC supply and a voltage of 3kV
• Equipped with four pantographs
• Sparing use of energy resources thanks to energy recuperation based on newest technology
• Tare weight 87 tons
• Output about 9,000 HP (6,400 kW)
• Maximum speed of 230km/h
• Maximum trailing load of 3,000 tons

In the period between March 2006 to December 2007, 50 locomotives will be delivered to ÖBB-Traktion GmbH and put into service. The TAURUS Competence Centre of ÖBB-Technische Services GmbH in Linz is responsible for assembly and maintenance of the high-performance locomotives.

Conclusion

All our activities are in line with the goals of the European Commission and co-ordinated with further notable institutions in the European rail sector, among others the Community of European Railways (CER) or Rail Net Europe (RNE). This harmonised performance and progress shows that the railways in South Eastern Europe are on an encouraging and auspicious way to play a much more important part in future Europe.

Finally we like to invite you to visit our web site www.arge-kx.com offering detailed information on Corridor X and the ARGE as well as the possibility to contact us. We hope you will receive convincing impressions of our partnership and our mission. As already mentioned above, we are ready and willing to work together with new partners who are interested in reaching the same or similar goals as we do.