Rail transport, the only alternative to the increasing road traffic

Bogdan Focsa, President of the Romanian Rail Industry Association thinks that CFR Marfa’s privatization is an appropriate measure for the rail branch and he is highly convinced that certain measures, like railway network rehabilitation, the 50% increase of the electrification level and the acquisition of new railroad rolling stock are a must.

RBT: Which are the current issues the Romanian rail transport operators come up against?

Bogdan Focsa: The main issue consists in the high infrastructure access costs (TUI, in Romanian), which represents an average cost of about 0,032 lei/tons-km. This is much higher than the infrastructure access tax for the road transport. The costs for the infrastructure access represent about 21% of the entire rail operators’ incomes, compared to a relatively insignificant percentage in the road transporters’ case.