On 3 May 2022, the popu­lar Freight Trans­port Forum final­ly took place again after three years. The most important play­ers and repre­sen­ta­ti­ves from the ship­ping indus­try from all over Euro­pe met to refresh their exper­ti­se and exch­an­ge ideas with col­le­agues across com­pa­nies. The chan­ces of making rail freight trans­port fit for the future in a joint effort are good!

Interesting approaches

The freight trans­port mas­ter plans and rail freight trans­port in par­ti­cu­lar, which were laun­ched in Ger­ma­ny and Aus­tria, pro­vi­de a com­pre­hen­si­ve over­view of the poli­ti­cal stra­te­gies and mea­su­res. Some­thing com­pa­ra­ble is lack­ing in Switz­er­land; ins­tead, there is still a strong focus on the indi­vi­du­al modes of trans­port. The VAP the­r­e­fo­re con­ti­nues to pur­sue an over­all view of freight trans­port and logi­stics, in close coope­ra­ti­on with eco­no­mie­su­is­se and ASTAG. Aus­tria pres­ents an amend­ment to the Waste Manage­ment Act. This sti­pu­la­tes that trans­ports of waste with a total weight of more than ten ton­nes, start­ing from a defi­ned trans­port distance (decre­asing bet­ween 1.1.2023 and 1.1.2026 from 300, 200, 100 km), must in future be car­ri­ed out by rail or by other means of trans­port with equi­va­lent or lower pol­lutant or green­house gas poten­ti­al (e.g. pro­pul­si­on by fuel cell or elec­tric motor). Simi­lar deve­lo­p­ments can also be seen in the can­ton of Zurich, for exam­p­le in the Ordi­nan­ce on the Trans­port of Excava­ted Mate­ri­al and Aggre­ga­tes by Rail of 3 Febru­ary 2021, which requi­res that a signi­fi­cant pro­por­ti­on of excava­ted mate­ri­al must be trans­por­ted by rail – or else a sub­sti­tu­te levy is paya­ble. In prin­ci­ple, we wel­co­me such regu­la­ti­ons to achie­ve the envi­ron­men­tal goals, but we do not con­sider a spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­on of the choice of means of trans­port by means of gent­le coer­ci­on to be very effec­ti­ve. Rather, the VAP stri­ves to make the rail­ways fit and attrac­ti­ve for ship­pers, so that pater­na­lism is not necessary.

We the­r­e­fo­re con­sider the com­mon inte­rest in pro­mo­ting digi­ta­li­sa­ti­on to be very posi­ti­ve. As never befo­re, the play­ers in the ship­ping indus­try stand united for pro­gress. It is impres­si­ve how the various play­ers net­work­ed across Euro­pe have deci­ded in favour of digi­ta­li­sa­ti­on and want to use this lever tog­e­ther to make rail freight trans­port fit for the future. Various pre­sen­ta­ti­ons show­ed that the Digi­tal Auto­ma­tic Cou­pling (DAC) not only brings con­sidera­ble reli­ef for mecha­ni­cal work, but is above all a switch for the con­nec­ti­vi­ty of an enti­re train. This is the pre­re­qui­si­te for digi­ta­li­sa­ti­on, which is so important for rail freight trans­port and which has long since taken place in other indus­tries. With more effi­ci­ent and trans­pa­rent pro­ces­ses, rail can beco­me com­pe­ti­ti­ve along­side other modes of trans­port. The motto is col­la­bo­ra­ti­on and coo­pe­ti­ti­on, which we at the VAP Asso­cia­ti­on of Ship­pers also support.

VAP mem­bers can down­load the spea­k­ers’ pre­sen­ta­ti­ons here with their per­so­nal login.

The course of the forum in detail

The mor­ning revol­ved around the ques­ti­on «Trans­port poli­cy in the green rush?». Gil­les Peter­hans, Secre­ta­ry Gene­ral of UIP explai­ned the trans­port poli­cy issues at Euro­pean level. Malte Law­renz, Chair­man of VPI Ger­ma­ny, show­ed the trans­port poli­cy frame­work for Ger­ma­ny, how prio­ri­ty should be given to rail and what fun­ding is nee­ded to be able to imple­ment the mas­ter plan for rail freight trans­port. Frank Petut­s­ch­nig, Secre­ta­ry Gene­ral VPI Aus­tria, pre­sen­ted the situa­ti­on in Aus­tria on the same topic, where the focus is on the over­all view of freight trans­port, name­ly the most effi­ci­ent choice of trans­port mode in terms of ener­gy demand per tonne. Dési­rée Baer, CEO of SBB Cargo, added to the situa­ti­on of the trans­port poli­cy frame­work in Switz­er­land with her pre­sen­ta­ti­on and intro­du­ced the Wagon­load Trans­port Inte­rest Group (IG WLV), the plat­form for coope­ra­ti­on bet­ween rail­ways and shippers.

In the sub­se­quent panel dis­cus­sion it beca­me clear that the cour­se for the future of rail freight trans­port has been set for inno­va­ti­on and that the next step is to defi­ne how the invest­ments will be finan­ced. It beca­me clear that the inno­va­tions affect all play­ers and that a col­la­bo­ra­ti­ve approach is the­r­e­fo­re the right way for­ward. Coope­ra­ti­on and com­pe­ti­ti­on – or coo­pe­ti­ti­on – are two other buz­zwords that are not only desi­red by the rail actors, but also in the inter­ac­tion bet­ween rail and road.

The after­noon was divi­ded into the two exci­ting key topics «Inno­va­tions & pos­si­ble imple­men­ta­ti­on» and «Digi­ta­li­sa­ti­on with con­cre­te mea­su­res». Jürg Lüt­scher, expert in inno­va­ti­on and regu­la­ti­on at the VAP, spoke about the auto­ma­ti­on of rail freight trans­port in Switz­er­land. He empha­sis­ed the importance of opti­mi­sing pro­ces­ses and inter­faces in the cour­se of inno­va­ti­on, the so-cal­led inter­ope­ra­bi­li­ty. Ralf Mar­xen, Head of Exter­nal Tech­ni­cal Affairs at Deut­sche Bahn AG, spoke about the path to the intel­li­gent goods train: «From Shift2Rail to Europe’s Rail». He poin­ted out important mile­sto­nes for inno­va­ti­on, with the Digi­tal Auto­ma­tic Cou­pling (DAC) taking on the key func­tion for digi­ta­li­sa­ti­on and enab­ling, for exam­p­le, auto­ma­ted pro­ces­ses and moni­to­ring, as well as pre­cise cus­to­mer com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on, thus rai­sing the ser­vice level of the trans­port of goods by rail many times over. Ste­fan Hagen­lo­cher, Mana­ging Direc­tor of HWH and TIS Pro­ject Mana­ger, who was con­nec­ted live via video chan­nel, show­ed what the Tech­ni­cal Inno­va­ti­on Cir­cle for Rail Freight Trans­port (TIS) requi­res for digi­tal and com­pe­ti­ti­ve rail freight trans­port. He cle­ar­ly com­mu­ni­ca­ted that there will be no com­ple­te auto­ma­ti­on of rail freight trans­port wit­hout DAC and that stan­dar­di­s­a­ti­on of the tech­ni­cal aspects and a coor­di­na­ted migra­ti­on stra­tegy are essential.

The two wagon hire com­pa­nies Niko Davids, Chief Digi­tal Offi­cer, VTG AG, and Chris­toph Becker, Head of ECM II and Safe­ty Manage­ment at Was­co­sa AG, demons­tra­ted their digi­ta­li­sa­ti­on stra­te­gies to streng­then the com­pe­ti­ti­ve­ness of rail freight trans­port. Their mes­sa­ge too – espe­ci­al­ly as the two com­pe­ti­tors were alre­a­dy sen­ding out a signal with their joint appearance: «Col­la­bo­ra­ti­on and coo­pe­ti­ti­on: digi­ta­li­sa­ti­on is not a pro­ject for one indi­vi­du­al! Only through acti­ve and open coope­ra­ti­on will there be a bene­fit for the sec­tor!»

Jörg Bisang, Head of Pro­duct Manage­ment ZKE, impres­sed with the pos­si­bi­li­ties that digi­ta­li­sa­ti­on of tech­ni­cal vehic­le con­trol with «Way­si­de Intel­li­gence» alre­a­dy brings today, and cal­led on RUs and wagon kee­pers to make use of these possibilities.

In the con­clu­ding panel dis­cus­sion it then also beca­me clear that ever­yo­ne wants to focus tog­e­ther on the migra­ti­on of the DAC, in the sense of inter­ope­ra­ble inno­va­ti­on. This coope­ra­ti­on con­cerns the enti­re rail­way sys­tem, which is why it is important to work tog­e­ther on this not as com­pe­ti­tors, but as an inno­va­ti­on team that exch­an­ges ideas about their goals. Quick and cou­ra­ge­ous decis­i­ons can enable effi­ci­ent implementation.

We look back on a suc­cessful Freight Trans­port Forum, where ever­yo­ne enjoy­ed final­ly being able to meet and exch­an­ge ideas in the «real world» again.

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