Anticipating ongoing changes

The French Railway Industry Association (FIF) is deeply rooted in the economic and social history of railways in France. Its parent organisation, the Association of Railway Equipment Manufacturers, created in 1899 on the eve of the universal exhibition in Paris where for the first time it exhibited as such, was the official lobbying body for the Trade until 1963 when it changed its name to the present ‘Fédération des Industries Ferroviaires’ (French Railway Industry Association).

Today, FIF regroups most of the main companies within the French rail industrial sector that operate in France, namely rolling stock manufacturers, track and signalling industries, track-laying contractors, equipment integrators and also engineering companies.

Its fifty or so member companies generate a combined turnover of €4.1 billion including €1.8 billion in export markets.

As part of its remit, FIF is required to deploy action in several fields, by:

• Putting across the viewpoints of French railway industries on changes in the political, legal and economic environment. In this capacity, it regularly sets forth its position through the channel of the main general or specialist media, also through public colloquia or seminars organised in France or abroad
• Keeping its members, outside bodies and the general public fully informed about developments in the French rail industrial sector
• Maintaining essential dialogue with the public authorities, transport executives and Regions; likewise with national and urban railway operators and, as such, it participates in the governing bodies of different railway associations
• Contributing towards development of the French and community-wide railway standardisation and certification process. In this context, it participates in the managing bodies of CERTIFER and BNF (Bureau de Normalisation Ferroviaire)
• Organising technical colloquia, seminars and events jointly with overseas trade bodies to promote business. As part of this process, it regularly stages seminars in different countries attended by major customers (railway companies, industrialists) and representatives of French small and medium-size firms (equipment integrators, signalling companies, track-equipment manufacturers)
• Participating within the Union of European Railway Industries (UNIFE), in the promotion of consultation and coordination between EU railway industries, and contributing towards sustained dialogue with the European Commission, European Parliament and international railway bodies

A new action scope for FIF

It is no exaggeration to assert that FIF is at the heart of a long-term transition process characterised by:

• A new division of tasks between operators and manufacturers, with the former now obliged to focus increasingly on their core business of operating trains, and the latter to work primarily on the basis of functional specifications with the correlative requirement of taking-on an ever larger share of R&D costs and of the innovation effort
• The increasing liberalisation of European markets in line with EU Directive 93/38, translating into the substitution of open tendering for the conventional system based on mutual agreement. This has sharpened competition between firms which themselves are becoming more and more multinational
• The increasingly decisive and significant role played by the regulatory framework as defined in the EU Directives (91/440, 93/38, 95/18, 95/19 and 2001/16) and by European technical standards
• The emerging role of several new players on the French rail scene, such as RFF (Infrastructure Manager), EPSF (the new Railway Safety Agency), the new railway freight operators and, last but not least, the Regions as transport sponsoring authorities from 2002 onward

Review of main actions deployed by FIF

In this redefined environment and since the turn of the century, FIF has developed a whole range of actions structured around several activities, the aim being to promote a novel approach to railway policy in France. The Association has embarked on a large-scale communication campaign targeted at key decision-makers to heighten their awareness of the need to ‘rethink’ the French rail policy. Campaign leitmotivs include:

• The promulgation of legislation covering rail infrastructure development policy
• The deployment of a more ambitious network-rehabilitation policy to halt the deterioration observed since the 90s
• The optimisation of rail-network maintenance
• The intensification of benchmarking against other European rail systems

The Association consequently supports a more ambitious rail policy, whether in terms of budget appropriation and network development, of integration into the international environment and, more importantly, of economic effectiveness.

Proactively contributing to the European technical standardisation effort

FIF is directly involved in the necessary European technical harmonisation process, whose corollary is the institution of a continent-wide market and the achievement of significant economies of scale.

With this in view, the Association (working through the (French) Bureau for Railway Standardisation), is actively engaged in national and European railway standardisation activities, whether for mechanical parts (courtesy of an AFAQ/AFNOR delegation) or electrical parts (courtesy of a UTE delegation).

It has thus been instrumental in the development of more than 200 European standards published since 2001.
In 1997, FIF also contributed, alongside the key rail-sector players, to the creation of CERTIFER, historically the first-ever ‘third-party’ certification agency to see the light of day in Europe.

Today, the Association (through its continued presence within the different CERTIFER bodies) actively supports a policy that promotes the Europe-wide practice of ‘third-party’ certification based on competency, pluralism and impartiality criteria.

Speed-up harmonisation of the European regulatory process

With its German counterpart VDB, FIF is the originator of the ground-breaking European cross-acceptance agreement on the approval of railway equipment.

The approval procedures applicable in each of the EU countries for all new rolling stock prior to deployment are both costly and lengthy. For this reason, FIF has put in place a cross-acceptance system initially valid only for freight locos operating in France and Germany, but now extended to all locos, wagons and EMUs/DMUs. This arrangement, developed in cooperation with VDB, the public authorities and the respective national railway safety agencies (EBA in Germany, EPSF in France), has since culminated in the signing of some ten bilateral agreements (e.g. Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Luxembourg, Belgium, Austria).

Agreements of this type will shorten by some six months the initial timeframes of 2 to 3 years needed to secure approval for rolling stock before first-time deployment in an EU country.

However such agreements specific to conventional rail – bearing in mind that high-speed rail is already covered by a Technical Specification for Interoperability (TSI) – are not designed to form the basis for a European regulatory framework, but rather to prepare the groundwork for the future European Regulation (approximately 2010) which should then encompass all the EU countries and all rolling stock designs.

Promoting the opening-up of rail transport markets

The ‘more traffic by rail’ objective is closely tied to the opening-up, not only of rail transport markets, but also of infrastructure building/maintenance/operating markets.

In the pursuit of this objective, FIF has been closely involved – at least where rail sector interests are concerned – in the drafting of the Bill voted into law on 6 January 2007, which stipulates that tenders must be issued for the funding, maintenance and operation of all new rail infrastructure.

From the FIF standpoint, a controlled and generalised approach to market liberalisation is the only way to reduce costs and generate more business, as this will induce a virtuous dynamic movement in terms of competitiveness.
Developing technological, commercial, economic, statistical and regulatory benchmarking in the interests of small and medium-size sector businesses

As a consequence of rail-sector Europeanisation and Globalisation, the trade industries are necessarily confronted with a more complex environment than was the case 15 to 20 years ago.

The fact that this complexity is even more burdensome for small businesses means that the interests of small and medium-size enterprises would best be served if they federated their strategic benchmarking via the FIF route. Aside from the actual benchmarking, this approach aims to facilitate the participation of industrial firms in competitive or pre-competitive R&D programmes at regional, national or European level, as well as enabling them to better to position themselves within the world competitive framework by working through competency networks.

The FIF agenda for 2008 and beyond

Anyone reading this article will readily understand that the philosophy of the actions deployed by FIF are underpinned by a number of key words, namely ‘Europe’, ‘opening-up to competition’, ‘competitiveness’ and ‘technical and regulatory harmonisation’.

This summary description is far from exhaustive, yet it is explicit enough for readers to grasp the exact scope of the FIF agenda for the next few years.

Indeed, it is an agenda which is coherent with the dynamic movement mentioned earlier, one which can be articulated around the following themes.

Analysis of and support for rail-specific measures contained in the ‘Environment Summit (‘Grenelle Round’) legislation
The bill drawn-up is the practical outcome of the Public Forum on sustainable development held between Summer 2007 and Summer 2008.

The political priority thus granted by the French Public Authorities to ensuring sustainable development, particularly in the building and transport sector, today translates into especially ambitious objectives for rail transport. These objectives include building an extra 2,000km of high-speed lines by 2020, multiplying the length of dedicated mass-transit infrastructure fivefold, increasing network rehabilitation investments by over €400 million annually and creating proximity rail-freight operators.

Once the bill becomes law, discussions and proposals will have to focus on funding and implementation issues.
FIF will be expected to play its full part in this process and to come forward with relevant proposals.

European technical and regulatory harmonisation

Some 40 EU texts specific to rail transport currently await transposition into French law.

We can add to these all the new cross-acceptance agreements plus our contributions to the preparation of a European Directive on urban transport. Here too a very heavy agenda awaits us in the years ahead.

In conclusion it can be stated that the role of the Association, through an approach based on anticipating ongoing changes in the rail system, will necessarily involve not only promoting this transport system and its different businesses, but also contributing to the development of a technical and regulatory framework favourable to the emergence of a Europe-wide market.

Finally, over the recent period, FIF has invested time and effort in the development of a benchmarking system which is being applied all the more readily by the sector’s small and medium-size companies as rail, still strictly ‘national’ in scope until the end of the last millennium, will have gone completely ‘global’ by 2020!