INNOVATION

What inno­va­tions are moving rail freight trans­port? The VAP pro­mo­tes the auto­ma­ti­on of rail freight trans­port and is repre­sen­ted in the pro­ject manage­ment of the migra­ti­on of the DAC (digi­tal auto­ma­tic coupling).

Thanks to the DAC, rail freight trans­port is beco­ming more effi­ci­ent, more pro­duc­ti­ve and empowered to inte­gra­te into the mul­ti­mo­dal logi­stics chains of the eco­no­my. With his moti­on 20.3221 “Trans­port­ing goods by rail more effi­ci­ent­ly through auto­ma­ti­on”, VAP Pre­si­dent and Coun­cil­lor of Sta­tes Josef Ditt­li pro­vi­ded the impe­tus for an imple­men­ta­ti­on and finan­cing con­cept for the auto­ma­ti­on and digi­ta­li­sa­ti­on of rail freight trans­port. Tog­e­ther with the Fede­ral Office of Trans­port (FOT) and the Asso­cia­ti­on of Public Trans­port (VÖV), the VAP has signed a decla­ra­ti­on of intent for the digi­ta­li­sa­ti­on and auto­ma­ti­on of Swiss rail freight trans­port. Num­e­rous com­pa­nies in the sec­tor have also declared their cooperation.

 

Media report:

Report by Zeit Online of 26.10.2021:

to the pro­ject page Auto­ma­ti­on Rail Freight Transport
Marco Rosso: «Collaborative innovation can contribute to the quality of life and function profitably at the same time.»

Marco Rosso: «Collaborative innovation can contribute to the quality of life and function profitably at the same time.»

27.09.2023 | Inno­va­ti­on, Inter­ope­ra­bi­li­ty, Ope­ra­ti­ons

Marco Rosso is Chair­man of the Board of Direc­tors of Cargo sous ter­rain AG (CST). In an inter­view with the VAP, he talks about inter­ope­ra­bi­li­ty, non-dis­cri­mi­na­ti­on on the last mile and the logi­stics of the future. And about how col­la­bo­ra­ti­ve inno­va­ti­on can con­tri­bu­te to the qua­li­ty of life of peo­p­le in Switz­er­land and func­tion pro­fi­ta­b­ly at the same time.

VAP: Mr Rosso, how do you see the rela­ti­onship bet­ween rail freight and CST in the future?

Marco Rosso: Rail and CST are two sys­tems that com­ple­ment each other. CST coope­ra­tes with all modes of trans­port to joint­ly absorb the pre­dic­ted freight traf­fic growth of over 30% by 2050 in an inno­va­ti­ve, sus­tainable way. Becau­se CST is not sui­ta­ble for all trans­ports, the com­pa­ny sup­ports the busi­ness models of rail, road hau­liers and other logi­stics play­ers with new tech­no­lo­gy and digi­ta­li­sa­ti­on. Only with coope­ra­ti­on (within the frame­work of com­pe­ti­ti­on rules) can inter­ope­ra­bi­li­ty be gua­ran­teed among the most diver­se modes of trans­port and trans­port com­pa­nies. The­r­e­fo­re, CST plans to con­nect to rail, road, ship, air freight and other sys­tems. At the CST hubs, there will be mul­ti­mo­dal con­nec­tions, in par­ti­cu­lar also a rail con­nec­tion. In the con­s­truc­tion phase, start­ing as early as 2026 and con­ti­nuing until 2045, CST will use rail trans­port to the tune of 2,000 goods trains per year and thus beco­me an important rail customer.

Should­n’t the state crea­te the infra­struc­tu­re and the ope­ra­ti­on in the tun­nels, as well as the ope­ra­ti­on of the ter­mi­nals and the last/first mile would then be free and sub­ject to competition?

CST is a sys­tem that only works as a whole becau­se all pro­ces­ses are con­trol­led end-to-end. This is the only way to ensu­re that the gene­ral cargo rea­ches its desti­na­ti­on on time and relia­bly. For this reason, the sys­tem must be mana­ged from a sin­gle source and at the same time be con­nec­ta­ble to all part­ner plat­forms. CST has been plan­ned and con­cei­ved as a pri­va­te-sec­tor pro­ject from the very begin­ning. With this finan­cing con­cept, it is pos­si­ble and important to move for­ward quick­ly wit­hout strai­ning the funds in the fede­ral bud­get. The inves­tors also include important future cus­to­mers. They help to deve­lop the sys­tem in line with the mar­ket. The Con­fe­de­ra­ti­on has reco­g­nis­ed that it would not be expe­di­ent to act as a crea­tor its­elf, but to limit its­elf to the legal frame­work. With careful­ly pre­pared busi­ness plans, com­pe­ti­ti­ve pri­ces and the broad inves­tor base that sup­ports the pro­ject, CST shows that inno­va­ti­on in freight trans­port con­tri­bu­tes to the qua­li­ty of life in cities and rural areas and can func­tion pro­fi­ta­b­ly at the same time.

Where do you see the big­gest chal­lenges in your project?

Such a com­pre­hen­si­ve pro­ject pres­ents many chal­lenges, for exam­p­le in plan­ning, legal, envi­ron­men­tal, finan­cial and poli­ti­cal terms. What distin­gu­is­hes CST is the model of col­la­bo­ra­ti­ve inno­va­ti­on – with the inclu­si­on of all stake­hol­ders. The pro­ject approa­ches the chal­lenges prag­ma­ti­cal­ly in stages.

How do you design a non-dis­cri­mi­na­to­ry first/last mile?

Our sys­tem is plan­ned to be non-dis­cri­mi­na­to­ry from the start any­way, wit­hout the law requi­ring it. The fol­lo­wing appli­es throug­hout: ever­yo­ne has access to the sys­tem with the same price for the same ser­vice. But we go even fur­ther, for exam­p­le, by deve­lo­ping CST’s city logi­stics in a col­la­bo­ra­ti­ve part­ner­ship and are open to any coope­ra­ti­on with smal­ler as well as lar­ger part­ners, inclu­ding the rail­ways and the post office. Here, too, our prin­ci­ple is col­la­bo­ra­ti­ve inno­va­ti­on, which we live by every day.

What is the grea­test bene­fit or moti­va­ti­on of CST for the Swiss population?

The most important effect of CST will be to increase the qua­li­ty of life for all inha­bi­tants of Switz­er­land. By show­ing a way how the logi­stics of the future can look sus­tainable, how heavy traf­fic on the road can be moved away by bund­ling and pre-sort­ing in tun­nels for all ship­pers, or how a traf­fic jam can be avo­ided for the sup­p­ly of goods, how to get the best out of the available resour­ces in terms of CO2 emis­si­ons, noise, etc. The pre­cious space on the sur­face should pri­ma­ri­ly belong to the popu­la­ti­on. CST favours the expan­si­on of infra­struc­tu­re as well as rene­wa­ble ener­gies in Switz­er­land. CST is a pri­va­te­ly finan­ced dri­ver of inno­va­ti­on for the bene­fit of the Swiss eco­no­my and for qua­li­ty of life in cities and vil­la­ges by gua­ran­te­e­ing secu­ri­ty of sup­p­ly and thus incre­asing pro­spe­ri­ty in Switzerland.

Are there any points that you think we should still let our mem­bers know about?

There are decisi­ve decis­i­ons and dis­cus­sions ahead, espe­ci­al­ly against the back­ground of the poli­ti­cal deba­tes on freight trans­port. We are firm­ly con­vin­ced that with an entre­pre­neu­ri­al atti­tu­de we can make an effec­ti­ve con­tri­bu­ti­on to main­tai­ning Switz­er­land in the 21st cen­tu­ry as an excel­lent busi­ness loca­ti­on with a high qua­li­ty of life, also for future gene­ra­ti­ons. We par­ti­ci­pa­te in this work with enthu­si­asm and commitment.

Mr Rosso, thank you very much for the interview.

Data ecosystems: Sharing data to double its added value

Data ecosystems: Sharing data to double its added value

28.06.2023 | Freight Trans­port Indus­try, Inno­va­ti­on, Poli­tics

We at the VAP have been working more inten­si­ve­ly on the topic of data eco­sys­tems for some time. In 2022, we initia­ted the deve­lo­p­ment of a data plat­form at the Coor­di­na­ti­on Unit for Sus­tainable Mobi­li­ty (KOMO) and are pushing ahead with the fur­ther deve­lo­p­ment of the Mobi­li­ty Data Infra­struc­tu­re (MODI). With this blog post, we would like to con­ti­nue the dia­lo­gue and show why data eco­sys­tems should be part of the visi­on of all freight rail­way actors.

Here’s why:

  • Com­ple­xi­ty sets the bar high
  • Small steps to the big vision
  • Exploi­ting the inex­haus­ti­ble poten­ti­al of data
  • We should stay in the conversation

 

Complexity sets the bar high

Data eco­sys­tems are high­ly com­plex and encom­pass diver­se sub­ject areas (see Figu­re 1). If they are to be made usable and eco­no­mic­al­ly via­ble, we must take into account all the wis­hes and needs of the actors as well as any restrictions.

Figu­re 1: The visi­on of digi­tal and ope­ra­tio­nal inter­con­nec­ti­vi­ty covers high­ly chal­len­ging topics

On the occa­si­on of our Freight 2023 Forum, Dr Mat­thi­as Prandt­stet­ter, Seni­or Sci­en­tist and The­ma­tic Coor­di­na­tor at the AIT Aus­tri­an Insti­tu­te of Tech­no­lo­gy AIT, and Moni­ka Zosso Lunds­gaard-Han­sen, Co-Sec­tion Head Direc­to­ra­te Ope­ra­ti­ons at the BAV, pro­vi­ded insights on the cur­rent sta­tus of initia­ti­ves and con­side­ra­ti­ons. The experts agree: pro­gress in the rail sec­tor will be a long and dif­fi­cult affair.

In small steps to the big vision

The tar­get image of an intel­li­gent and pos­si­bly self-deci­ding data eco­sys­tem could be rea­li­sed through the fol­lo­wing deve­lo­p­ment pha­ses as examp­les (not exhaustive):

1. pro­vi­de basic data (e.g. with MODI)

  • Gua­ran­teed quality
  • “Uni­que­ness” of the data set (i.e. clear definitions)
  • Accessibility/transparency for all those involved
  • Mar­ket-based deve­lo­p­ment of apps and exten­ded func­tion­a­li­ties possible

2. acti­va­te hub for exch­an­ge of data (e.g. DX Inter­mo­dal by Hupac)

  • Exch­an­ge bet­ween 2 or more com­pa­nies ope­ra­ting on the hub
  • Addi­tio­nal data sets (with or wit­hout rest­ric­tions for indi­vi­du­al actors/companies)
  • Boo­king pos­si­bi­li­ties for indi­vi­du­al or enti­re relations

3. crea­te data ecosystem

  • Ensu­re access to his­to­ri­cal data for initi­al ana­ly­sis possibilities
  • Con­nect data­ba­ses (basic data and/or data sets available with restrictions)

4. use block­chain technology

  • Data and data sets are opti­mal­ly networked
  • Abso­lu­te cost and price transparency
  • Increased secu­ri­ty in data exchange
  • More effi­ci­ent over­all deve­lo­p­ment and processing

5. rea­li­se the visi­on of a phy­si­cal internet

  • Open glo­bal sys­tem based on phy­si­cal, digi­tal and ope­ra­tio­nal interconnectivity
  • Appli­es pro­to­cols, inter­faces and modularisation
  • Cer­tain decis­i­ons are made by the eco­sys­tem – not by indi­vi­du­al players

Curr­ent­ly, the rail sec­tor is in phase 1 and 2, even if only sel­ec­tively. With the Fede­ral Act on Mobi­li­ty Data Infra­struc­tu­re (MODIG), the FOT is addres­sing all rele­vant topics. DX Inter­mo­dal is alre­a­dy ope­ra­tio­nal in com­bi­ned trans­port (CT) and takes up points from phase 2. An over­all bene­fit for rail freight logi­stics can only be achie­ved if all forms of freight trans­port pro­duc­tion and the enti­re trans­port chain (“door-to-door”) are taken into account. To this end, ele­ments of arti­fi­ci­al intel­li­gence must be integrated.

Exploiting the inexhaustible potential of data

Big Data has trans­for­med from hype to mega­trend; the poten­ti­al of coll­ec­ted data is almost infi­ni­te. This enables dis­rup­ti­ve, inno­va­ti­ve, digi­tal busi­ness models and bet­ter pre­dic­tions for cor­rect busi­ness decis­i­ons. Howe­ver, this only appli­es to data that is available in the right qua­li­ty and gra­nu­la­ri­ty. In addi­ti­on, the actors must be able to extra­ct the right infor­ma­ti­on and thus the desi­red know­ledge from the data and to inter­pret and use it cor­rect­ly. This poses a num­ber of chal­lenges for the eco­sys­tem partners:

System benefit vs. self-benefit

Some com­pa­nies alre­a­dy have in-house data sys­tems. They coll­ect data from devices on loco­mo­ti­ves and wagons and use it for opti­mi­sa­ti­on or pass it on to third par­ties. This gives them a com­pe­ti­ti­ve advan­ta­ge and addi­tio­nal sources of reve­nue. Why should such com­pa­nies par­ti­ci­pa­te in data eco­sys­tems? Becau­se opti­mi­sing their own sys­tem does not neces­s­a­ri­ly serve the sys­tem as a whole or the end cus­to­mer. If, for exam­p­le, various indi­vi­du­al play­ers sell the same data to third par­ties for a fee, the sys­tem beco­mes more expen­si­ve becau­se money flows for each data trans­fer. In addi­ti­on, indi­vi­du­al actors can com­bi­ne their data sets within the frame­work of a data eco­sys­tem and thus pro­mo­te the effi­ci­en­cy of the enti­re sys­tem, for exam­p­le the esti­ma­ted time of depar­tu­re or arri­val. In this con­text, ques­ti­ons of data sove­reig­n­ty need to be clarified.

Obligation vs. voluntariness

The state is and remains the big­gest finan­cial back­er of the rail sys­tem. It should have an inte­rest in reli­e­ving its own cof­fers and thus the tax­pay­ers. The pro­vi­si­on of non-pro­fit data can impro­ve effi­ci­en­cy. Again, ques­ti­ons remain: Should eco­sys­tem part­ners be obli­ged to pro­vi­de data­sets? Should it be pos­si­ble in a data eco­sys­tem to off­set pre­vious, indi­vi­du­al invest­ments or to con­trast sub­si­dies recei­ved? Or should par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on in a data eco­sys­tem remain vol­un­t­a­ry, with the risk that too few par­ti­ci­pan­ts feed the plat­form with data?

Data vs. data

Not every data ele­ment is equal for a data eco­sys­tem. Thus, it must be cle­ar­ly defi­ned from the begin­ning with which goal and over­all bene­fit an actor should depo­sit its data ele­ments on a data plat­form. In addi­ti­on, a distinc­tion must be made bet­ween ope­ra­tio­nal, tech­ni­cal and com­mer­cial data in order to avoid emo­tio­nal dis­cus­sions. Final­ly, the qua­li­ty ensu­red by the data owner or a newly crea­ted qua­li­ty body deter­mi­nes the cre­di­bi­li­ty and sus­taina­bi­li­ty of a data ecosystem.

We should stay in the conversation

We at the VAP want to make the poten­ti­al of data eco­sys­tems available to the enti­re rail sec­tor and increase its com­pe­ti­ti­ve­ness. That is why we are com­mit­ted to various initia­ti­ves, rese­arch pro­jects and estab­lished pro­ducts in this con­text, name­ly the following:

  • Fur­ther deve­lo­p­ment of the mobi­li­ty data infra­struc­tu­re MODI, tog­e­ther with the BAV.
  • Com­mon Euro­pean Mobi­li­ty Data Space (EMDS), an EU initiative
  • Logi­stics Working Group (AKL), in which we have taken over the leadership

 

If you too would like to help shape the digi­tal future of the rail sec­tor, Jür­gen Maier looks for­ward to hea­ring from you.

Keepers’ Summit 2023: Adapting to customer requirements and a visionary future for rail freight transport

Keepers’ Summit 2023: Adapting to customer requirements and a visionary future for rail freight transport

27.06.2023 | Events, Freight Trans­port Indus­try, Inno­va­ti­on

What it’s all about:

  • UIP Kee­pers’ Sum­mit in Nice
  • Cus­to­mer focus and trans­for­ma­ti­on for rail freight in Europe
  • David Zindo new Pre­si­dent of the UIP

 

The Inter­na­tio­nal Union of Wagon Kee­pers (UIP) in col­la­bo­ra­ti­on with its French mem­ber asso­cia­ti­on AFWP wel­co­med 120 freight rail stake­hol­ders from across Euro­pe to its annu­al flag­ship con­fe­rence, the Kee­pers’ Sum­mit, in Nice, France on 15 June 2023. Dis­cus­sions focu­sed on how envi­ron­men­tal­ly fri­end­ly fea­tures of rail freight can be used to address cli­ma­te chan­ge while appe­al­ing to cus­to­mers and attrac­ting young talent. The panelists and the audi­ence agreed: rail freight has an important role to play in the future of our socie­ty. Howe­ver, this can only be achie­ved if rail freight ope­ra­ti­ons trans­form away from state mono­po­lies towards pri­va­te sec­tor competition.

In search of chan­ge, for­mer UIP Pre­si­dent Dr Heiko Fischer chal­len­ged the audi­ence to look to the past to bet­ter prepa­re for the future. As the dri­ving force behind the crea­ti­on of the Gene­ral Con­tract of Use (GCU), Mr Fischer poin­ted to the important role of pri­va­te wagon kee­pers in deve­lo­ping rail freight solu­ti­ons. As a con­vin­ced and visio­na­ry man, he always pla­ced great empha­sis on the need to inno­va­te and trans­form rail freight to meet the future chal­lenges and expec­ta­ti­ons of cus­to­mers and socie­ty. The audi­ence ack­now­led­ged with stan­ding applau­se the com­mit­ment and achie­ve­ments of Dr Fischer, who had gui­ded the desti­ny of UIP as Pre­si­dent for 11 years.

Mr Joris D’In­ca, Glo­bal Head of Logi­stics at the inter­na­tio­nal manage­ment con­sul­ting firm Oli­ver Wyman, con­firm­ed in his key­note speech the need for rail freight to adapt to evol­ving cus­to­mer requi­re­ments: «Cus­to­mers expect com­ple­te trans­pa­ren­cy along the trans­port chain. They place the grea­test value on the avai­la­bi­li­ty of real-time infor­ma­ti­on and effec­ti­ve cor­ri­dor manage­ment, among other things. Only by adap­ting to these and other requi­re­ments will rail freight be able to gain mar­ket share from road freight and play a grea­ter role in com­ba­ting cli­ma­te chan­ge.» Pre­sen­ta­ti­on Joris D’Incà

The expert panel, mode­ra­ted by Ms Emi­lie Sou­lez and com­po­sed of Mr Charles Puech d’A­lis­s­ac (VIIA/Naviland), Mr Paul Maza­t­aud (SNCF Réseau) and Mr Sté­pha­ne Gavard (Streem), dove deep into the ele­ments at the heart of the trans­for­ma­ti­on nee­ded to meet the new expec­ta­ti­ons. Mr Maza­t­aud con­firm­ed SNCF Rése­au’s needs and inten­ti­ons to offer more trans­pa­ren­cy in main­ten­an­ce ope­ra­ti­ons, but also RNE’s plans to increase fle­xi­bi­li­ty by adap­ting the time­tab­ling pro­cess. Mr Puech D’A­lis­s­ac high­ligh­ted the ele­ments and bene­fits of com­bi­ned trans­port and the busi­ness model behind the acti­vi­ties of Navi­l­and and VIIA. He poin­ted out the pro­gress made in digi­ti­sing the inter­face with cus­to­mers and encou­ra­ged all stake­hol­ders to redou­ble their efforts in digi­ti­sing the inter­faces bet­ween rail freight actors. Mr Gavard pro­vi­ded insights into wagon inno­va­ti­on both in terms of con­cept and indus­tri­al manu­fac­tu­ring, but also explai­ned Stree­m’s pro­ject to deve­lop skills and know­ledge in the industry.

Final­ly, Mr David Zindo, CEO of Streem Group and newly elec­ted UIP Pre­si­dent, con­cluded with a pro­mi­se: to sup­port the trans­for­ma­ti­on with clear prio­ri­ties while allo­wing freight wagon kee­pers and asso­cia­ti­ons to bene­fit from the suc­cess of the past in order to increase the attrac­ti­ve­ness and com­pe­ti­ti­ve­ness of rail freight. He stres­sed the importance of the work of UIP and the natio­nal fede­ra­ti­ons, which act as con­so­li­da­ted voices and link to local and Euro­pean poli­ti­cal institutions.

«Our socie­ties need to under­stand the uni­que sel­ling pro­po­si­ti­on of rail freight as a cru­cial means to decar­bo­ni­se the trans­port sec­tor. We as a sys­tem need to impro­ve our offer to meet the needs of cus­to­mers, but also to attract and train young talent.» – David Zindo

David Zindo beco­mes new UIP Pre­si­dent: A visi­on for the future of rail freight transport

David Zindo will be the new Pre­si­dent of UIP, suc­cee­ding Dr Heiko Fischer, who led UIP as Pre­si­dent for 11 years. Zindo was elec­ted during UIP’s Gene­ral Assem­bly on 15 June 2023 in Nice, France. He is sup­port­ed by Vice Pre­si­dents Per-Anders Ben­thin (CEO of Trans­wag­gon) and Johann Fein­dert (CEO of GATX Rail Europe).

Mr Zindo brings exten­si­ve expe­ri­ence to the posi­ti­on, being CEO of Streem Group (form­er­ly Erme­wa Group) and a mem­ber of the UIP Exe­cu­ti­ve Board since 2015. He pre­vious­ly held seni­or finan­ce posi­ti­ons at SNCF, Geo­dis and Veo­lia Envi­ron­men­tal Services.

As the new UIP Pre­si­dent, David Zin­do’s visi­on is to fur­ther streng­then UIP by set­ting clear prio­ri­ties, streng­thening the team and buil­ding alli­ances with other asso­cia­ti­ons. He wants to streng­then the role of freight wagon kee­pers in the sup­p­ly chain and explain the com­plex EU regu­la­to­ry land­scape. With his long expe­ri­ence and com­mit­ment to rail freight, Mr Zindo aims to trans­form the sec­tor to meet future chal­lenges and the expec­ta­ti­ons of cus­to­mers and society.

Read more about the newly elec­ted Pre­si­den­t’s visi­on in UIP’s inter­view with David Zindo. 
Inter­view David Zindo

 

  •  

    The Inter­na­tio­nal Union of Wagon Kee­pers (UIP) was foun­ded in 1950 and has its head­quar­ters in Brussels. It is the umbrel­la orga­ni­sa­ti­on of natio­nal asso­cia­ti­ons from 14 Euro­pean count­ries, repre­sen­ting more than 250 wagon kee­pers and Enti­ties in Char­ge of Main­ten­an­ce (ECMs). The four­teen mem­ber count­ries are: Aus­tria, Bel­gi­um, Czech Repu­blic, France, Ger­ma­ny, Hun­ga­ry, Italy, the Net­her­lands, Pol­and, Spain, Slo­va­kia, Swe­den, Switz­er­land and the United King­dom. As the voice for more than 234,000 freight wagons, UIP repres­ents half of the total Euro­pean freight wagon fleet and is one of the most important resour­ces for the freight rail sec­tor in Euro­pe. Rese­arch, lob­by­ing and con­stant exch­an­ge with all stake­hol­ders and orga­ni­sa­ti­ons inte­res­ted in the rail freight sec­tor play an important role for the asso­cia­ti­on to direct all efforts towards incre­asing effi­ci­en­cy in the rail freight ser­vice. Through par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on in many working groups and com­mit­tees at Euro­pean and inter­na­tio­nal level, UIP brings the per­spec­ti­ve and inte­rests of freight wagon kee­pers and works in coope­ra­ti­on with all inte­res­ted par­ties to secu­re the long-term future of rail freight. UIP is reco­g­nis­ed by the Euro­pean Com­mis­si­on as a repre­sen­ta­ti­ve body in the rail sector.

Back to the future: development of Swiss rail freight transport

Back to the future: development of Swiss rail freight transport

15.06.2023 | Freight Trans­port Indus­try, Inno­va­ti­on

In this tri­bu­te, you will learn how rail freight trans­port in Switz­er­land is moving per­sis­t­ent­ly towards the future. For many years, inno­va­ti­on was a for­eign word for the «brown wagons». But this era is passé. The freight rail­ways are ready for the age of 4.0 and their place on the rails. This is indis­pensable for secu­ri­ty of sup­p­ly, envi­ron­men­tal­ly fri­end­ly trans­port per­for­mance and reli­e­ved roads.

Tha­t’s what it’s all about:

  • Con­ti­nuous­ly on the rise for 175 years
  • Pro­vi­des over a third of the trans­port ser­vices in and through Switzerland
  • Loo­king back at past cri­ses and successes
  • A cen­tu­ry ahead in electrification

The trans­port per­for­mance of rail freight in Switz­er­land has under­go­ne an impres­si­ve deve­lo­p­ment since the begin­ning of the 20th cen­tu­ry. Accor­ding to the Fede­ral Sta­tis­ti­cal Office (FSO), it total­led about 1.5 bil­li­on tonne-kilo­me­t­res in 1900. Since then, rail has been mark­ed by many cri­ses, some of them far away. Today it accounts for 10.4 bil­li­on tonne-kilo­me­t­res. tonne-kilo­me­t­res and a 37% share[1] of the modal split, it is an important pil­lar of the Swiss trans­port sys­tem. But let’s take it one step at a time.

Small country, big performance – still a lot of potential

The trans­port per­for­mance of rail freight has fluc­tua­ted over the deca­des (cf. Figu­re 1). Since the end of the pan­de­mic, it has been rising ste­adi­ly again. In tran­sal­pi­ne freight trans­port (tran­sit), there is a trans­fer obli­ga­ti­on based on the artic­le on the pro­tec­tion of the Alps in the Fede­ral Con­sti­tu­ti­on. As a result of the con­s­truc­tion of the NRLA, the four-metre cor­ri­dor and unpre­ce­den­ted finan­cial sup­port for unac­com­pa­nied com­bi­ned trans­port (UCT), Switz­er­land had a very high modal split in favour of rail in tran­sal­pi­ne trans­port in 2021, at 74%; the trans­port per­for­mance of rail freight trans­port was a peak value com­pared to other count­ries, at 66% of tran­sit traf­fic. The over­all modal split of 37% rail was also above the inter­na­tio­nal level.

In non-tran­sit traf­fic, there is no modal shift man­da­te. Enorm­ous poten­ti­al lies dor­mant in dome­stic trans­port (2021: 23%), imports (7.5%) and exports (3.5%[2]), pro­vi­ded that the fun­da­men­tal moder­ni­sa­ti­on and reor­ga­ni­sa­ti­on of wagon­load trans­port and the pro­mo­ti­on of intra­mo­dal com­pe­ti­ti­on are imple­men­ted[3]. This includes the auto­ma­ti­on and digi­ta­li­sa­ti­on of the rail sys­tem. These put wagon­load traf­fic in the fast lane and make rail fit for inter­mo­dal com­pe­ti­ti­on and mul­ti­mo­dal logi­stics chains. Suf­fi­ci­ent­ly available infra­struc­tu­re for the freight rail­ways and more con­ve­ni­ent­ly loca­ted logi­stics sites fur­ther acce­le­ra­te this pro­gress[4].

Switz­er­lan­d’s trans­port and infra­struc­tu­re poli­cy should the­r­e­fo­re incre­asing­ly focus on the cus­to­mer bene­fits of rail as a mode of trans­port for the ship­ping indus­try. The more bene­fits the Swiss rail freight trans­port sys­tem brings to ship­pers, the more it will be used – in other words, the more traf­fic will be shifted. We at the VAP reject an expli­cit shift of traffic.

Figu­re 1: Swiss rail freight trans­port per­for­mance since 1900 (click on the image to enlarge)

Uphill and downhill journey with a clear gain in altitude

On 7 August 1847, the first rail­way line enti­re­ly on Swiss soil from Zurich to Baden – popu­lar­ly known as the «Spa­nish-Bröt­li-Bahn»[5] (cf. Figu­re 2) – was cere­mo­nious­ly ope­ned. One of the reasons for the con­s­truc­tion of this line: the lords of Zurich had their mes­sen­gers bring them the puff pastry «Spa­nisch Bröt­li» – main­ly on Sun­days – from a well-known mas­ter baker in Baden. The poor ser­vants always had to make their way to Baden on foot short­ly after mid­night so that they could put fresh rolls on the Sun­day break­fast table. The «Spa­nish-Bröt­li-Bahn» made it pos­si­ble to trans­port goods and peo­p­le quick­ly and relia­bly.[6]

 

Figu­re 2: With the “Spa­nisch-Bröt­li-Bahn”, Switz­er­land gets its first natio­nal rail­way line.

 

The first rail­ways in Switz­er­land were built on pri­va­te initia­ti­ve. They were able to start ope­ra­ting with a con­ces­si­on from the can­tons they ser­ved. Initi­al­ly, the Con­fe­de­ra­ti­on only spe­ci­fied the tech­ni­cal aspects. Later, the Con­fe­de­ra­ti­on was given more powers to ensu­re a sen­si­ble natio­nal network.

In 1857, a rail­way mail coach was used for the first time in Switz­er­land by the Schwei­ze­ri­sche Nord­ost­bahn on the Zurich-Baden-Brugg line. This was the begin­ning of Swiss rail­way mail. In 1859, the route net­work alre­a­dy had a length of more than 1000 km, there was a con­ti­nuous con­nec­tion from Lake Con­s­tance to Gen­e­va, to which Bern, Lucer­ne, Chur, St. Gal­len, Schaff­hau­sen and Basel were also con­nec­ted. In 1882, after the com­ple­ti­on of the 15-km-long sum­mit tun­nel, the Gott­hard rail­way was able to begin operations.

In 1875, the first law for the con­s­truc­tion and ope­ra­ti­on of indus­tri­al sidings was intro­du­ced in Switz­er­land, thus legal­ly regu­la­ting the legal rela­ti­onships for sidings. The refe­ren­dum of 20 Febru­ary 1898 mark­ed the end of the pri­va­te rail­way age, and from 1902 the newly foun­ded state rail­way SBB took over the lar­gest rail­way com­pa­nies as well as smal­ler pri­va­te rail­ways. With natio­na­li­sa­ti­on, respon­si­bi­li­ty for the fur­ther deve­lo­p­ment of the rail­ways pas­sed to the fede­ral govern­ment. The take­over of the infra­struc­tu­re by the SBB was a good step. Howe­ver, ope­ra­ti­on on the net­work was to be cha­rac­te­ri­sed by competition.

With the mono­po­li­sa­ti­on of rail trans­port, it was time in 1912 to estab­lish a repre­sen­ta­ti­ve for the pri­va­te play­ers. This was the birth of the VAP Ver­band Schwei­ze­ri­scher Anschluss­glei­se- und Pri­vat­gü­ter­wa­gen­be­sit­zer – today’s VAP Ver­band der ver­la­den­den Wirt­schaft – which from then on cam­pai­gned for fair com­pe­ti­ti­on and the opti­mi­sa­ti­on of eco­no­mic poli­cy con­di­ti­ons, rail infra­struc­tu­re and logi­stics loca­ti­ons. At that time, rail made a decisi­ve con­tri­bu­ti­on to the indus­tri­al revo­lu­ti­on – the pro­fi­ta­ble con­nec­tion soon over­took ship and horse-drawn car­ria­ge as the infra­struc­tu­re grew. Fast trans­port within Switz­er­land, but also to Euro­pe, ope­ned up new eco­no­mic opportunities.

During the First World War, the trans­port per­for­mance of rail freight first rose, befo­re decli­ning by 18% in 1917 and 14% in 1918. These decli­nes can be attri­bu­ted to the inter­rup­ti­ons in pro­duc­tion and trade as well as the effects of the Spa­nish flu. The pan­de­mic at that time affec­ted about half of the Swiss popu­la­ti­on in two waves and clai­med almost 25,000 lives bet­ween July 1918 and June 1919. Trans­port per­for­mance reco­ver­ed in the 1920s befo­re plum­me­ting again in the year of the eco­no­mic cri­sis in 1921 and with the New York stock mar­ket crash of Octo­ber 1929.

With the begin­ning of the Second World War, the freight rail­way began an ups­wing, which it owed to the arma­ment eco­no­my and poli­ti­cal decis­i­ons[7]. Dome­stic traf­fic increased, as the now lar­ge­ly elec­tri­fied rail­way repla­ced car and truck traf­fic, which had been lar­ge­ly para­ly­sed due to a lack of fuel. During the Second World War, the trans­port per­for­mance of the rail­ways decli­ned mas­si­ve­ly until freight tran­sit traf­fic almost com­ple­te­ly col­lap­sed at the end of the war and the trans­port per­for­mance lost 42% overall.

After the Second World War, the eco­no­my reco­ver­ed and with it the trans­port per­for­mance of the rail­ways. It rea­ched a first record level in the 1970s. This was fol­lo­wed by sharp decli­nes due to the oil price cri­sis, the 1987 stock mar­ket crash, the real estate cri­sis and the sub­se­quent reces­si­on of the 1990s. In 1999, Switz­er­land laun­ched the first of seve­ral steps of the so-cal­led rail­way reform in the con­text of the Euro­pean mar­ket ope­ning for UCT and based on EC Direc­ti­ve 91/440/EEC[8]. The aim: to make the Swiss rail­way sys­tem more effi­ci­ent and customer-friendly.

The new rail­way sidings law of 5 Octo­ber 1990 and the ordi­nan­ce of 26 Febru­ary 1992 are inten­ded to give new impe­tus to the pro­mo­ti­on of rail freight trans­port and to help solve the num­e­rous pro­blems facing freight trans­port in a future-ori­en­ted manner.

In the year 2000, rail freight trans­port per­for­mance was five times grea­ter than in 1950 (+397%). This mul­ti­ple is all the more impres­si­ve given that the share of rail in total freight trans­port decli­ned mas­si­ve­ly in favour of road trans­port pre­cis­e­ly in those years. For despi­te the expe­ri­ence of fuel shorta­ges during the Second World War, the tran­si­ti­on to a petro­le­um-based eco­no­my took place after the end of the war.

The New Rail Link through the Alps (NRLA) brought a fur­ther boost. With three base tun­nels through the Alps and the expan­si­on of the access rou­tes, it brought the north and south of Switz­er­land and Euro­pe clo­ser tog­e­ther. The Lötsch­berg base tun­nel has been in ope­ra­ti­on since 2007. The Gott­hard Base Tun­nel was ope­ned in 2016. In 2020, the NRLA was com­ple­ted with the com­mis­sio­ning of the Ceneri Base Tunnel.

Mood 2008–2012

To help you feel the pulse of the times, we have sum­ma­ri­sed for you the con­tents of spee­ches given at our AGMs in 2008, 2010 and 2012:

2008: VAP Gene­ral Assem­bly, Pre­si­dent Franz Stein­eg­ger’s pre­si­den­ti­al address

Swiss trans­port poli­cy in rail freight trans­port is cha­rac­te­ri­sed by con­tra­dic­tions. On the one hand, mil­li­ons of Swiss francs are inves­ted in tran­sit traf­fic bet­ween Ger­ma­ny and Italy, when this is hand­led as com­bi­ned trans­port or as a rol­ling road. On the other hand, in dome­stic traf­fic, pas­sen­ger traf­fic is sub­si­di­sed via a mis­gui­ded train-path price regu­la­ti­on and rail freight traf­fic is dis­ad­van­ta­ged. Moreo­ver, ship­pers in Switz­er­land will only recei­ve a flat-rate refund of the HVF if they bring their goods to the rail­way in a con­tai­ner, which fur­ther sub­si­di­ses tran­sit traf­fic. The Asso­cia­ti­on of Swiss Ship­pers (VAP) calls for a com­pre­hen­si­ve modal shift poli­cy that also takes eco­lo­gi­cal cri­te­ria into account. To this end, train path pri­ces, access prio­ri­ties, rail capa­ci­ties, the appli­ca­ti­on of the pol­lu­ter-pays prin­ci­ple in route rene­wals and a needs-based assess­ment of wagon­load traf­fic must be impro­ved. It is also stres­sed that the needs of freight trans­port should not be unde­re­sti­ma­ted in the future deve­lo­p­ment of rail projects.

2010: VAP Gene­ral Assem­bly, Speech by Moritz Leuenberger

Freight traf­fic, which is respon­si­ble for the trans­port of goods, is often over­loo­ked by many peo­p­le. While most do not care about the ori­gin and histo­ry of goods, they are often not infor­med about how trans­port and logi­stics are car­ri­ed out. The text shows that freight trans­port by rail is dis­ad­van­ta­ged com­pared to pas­sen­ger trans­port and often recei­ves too litt­le poli­ti­cal sup­port. Public funds are beco­ming scar­cer, while freight trans­port is incre­asing expo­nen­ti­al­ly on both road and rail. Leu­en­ber­ger sug­gests that the order of prio­ri­ties on the rail net­work must be recon­side­red in order to streng­then freight trans­port. The fede­ral govern­ment has alre­a­dy taken mea­su­res to sup­port freight trans­port, inclu­ding ZEB and Bahn2030, he said.

2012: VAP Gene­ral Assem­bly, Speech by Franz Stein­eg­ger, Pre­si­dent VAP

The Pre­si­dent looks back on a long care­er in trans­port poli­cy and recalls dis­cus­sions on various pro­jects such as Rail 2000, the Ver­ei­na Tun­nel, the Neat and the Alpi­ne pro­tec­tion artic­le. He notes that the growth of pas­sen­ger and freight trans­port will increase by 60% by 2030 and that infra­struc­tu­re must fol­low the incre­asing demand for mobi­li­ty. Howe­ver, there are finan­cial and envi­ron­men­tal limits, and there is the ques­ti­on of whe­ther the neces­sa­ry infra­struc­tu­re sup­p­ly can be pro­vi­ded. The aut­hor cri­ti­ci­s­es that poli­ti­ci­ans and asso­cia­ti­ons pre­fer to deal with means of con­trol and prio­ri­ties of use for exis­ting infra­struc­tures ins­tead of loo­king at the future. In the case of the rail­ways, there are plans such as Rail 2030 and a Stra­te­gic Rail Infra­struc­tu­re Deve­lo­p­ment Pro­gram­me (STEP) with invest­ments of CHF 42 bil­li­on. The roads also have finan­cing pro­po­sals. Switz­er­land invests the most per capi­ta in the rail­way net­work in Europe.

From the com­me­mo­ra­ti­ve paper:

The fede­ral law and the Berne Con­ven­ti­on have pro­mo­ted rail freight in natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal trans­port. Howe­ver, rail freight trans­port is in fier­ce com­pe­ti­ti­on with road freight and pas­sen­ger trans­port, which is incre­asing­ly wea­k­e­ning the com­pe­ti­ti­ve­ness of rail freight trans­port. Swiss trans­port poli­cy aims to shift freight trans­port from road to rail, which requi­res a well-deve­lo­ped infra­struc­tu­re and fair net­work access con­di­ti­ons. To remain com­pe­ti­ti­ve, intra­mo­dal com­pe­ti­ti­on and state incen­ti­ves are also nee­ded, as well as a cri­ti­cal ana­ly­sis of the orga­ni­sa­ti­on of the rail­way infra­struc­tu­re and rail­way com­pa­nies. The VAP sees it as a chall­enge and an obli­ga­ti­on to balan­ce the modal shift dis­cus­sion in the inte­rest of Switz­er­land as a busi­ness loca­ti­on and a place to live.

 

The ter­ro­rist attacks in the USA in 2001 were fol­lo­wed by a 4% decli­ne. After the finan­cial cri­sis of 2008 trig­ge­red by the burs­t­ing of the US real estate bubble, trans­port per­for­mance fell by 14% in 2009. In the eco­no­mic cri­sis in 2012 fol­lo­wing the intro­duc­tion of the mini­mum euro exch­an­ge rate, there was again a decli­ne of 4%. The clo­sure of the Rhine Val­ley rail­way (water ingress in the Ras­tatt Tun­nel) resul­ted in a decrease of 6% in 2017. Com­pa­ra­ble to this is the 5% decrease in rail freight trans­port in the Coro­na pan­de­mic year 2020. In 2021, rail freight trans­port increased again by 6.2% (10.4 bil­li­on tonne-kilometres).

Electrification: a century ahead

In the early days, rail­ways ran on coal. In 1888, the first elec­tri­cal­ly powered rail­way rol­led out in Switz­er­land with the Vevey-Mon­treux-Chil­lon (VMC) tram­way. Other nar­row-gauge rail­ways fol­lo­wed step by step. In 1901, at the gene­ral mee­ting of the Swiss Elec­tro­tech­ni­cal Asso­cia­ti­on, it was pro­po­sed that the elec­tri­fi­ca­ti­on of stan­dard-gauge rail­ways should also be examined.

Figu­re 3: In 1888, Switz­er­lan­d’s first elec­tri­cal­ly ope­ra­ted rail­way rol­led out with the Vevey-Mon­treux-Chil­lon tram­way. © Lau­rent Croset

Accor­ding to the later Study Com­mis­si­on for Elec­tric Rail­way Ope­ra­ti­on, the initia­tor was “main­ly gui­ded by the need to make our coun­try less depen­dent on the coal-pro­du­cing count­ries and to open up a new field of work for the Swiss elec­tro­tech­ni­cal indus­try”. In its 1912 report to the SBB gene­ral manage­ment, the study com­mis­si­on its­elf empha­sis­ed “the uti­li­sa­ti­on of natio­nal water power ins­tead of for­eign coal” as the main moti­ve “and, if pos­si­ble, a reduc­tion in the cost of ope­ra­ti­on”. As early as 1906 and 1913, the various sec­tions of the Lötsch­berg-Sim­plon axis were elec­tri­fied and put into operation.

The coal shorta­ge during the First World War drove the elec­tri­fi­ca­ti­on of the rail­way for­ward. In 1920 the Gott­hard rail­way went into elec­tric ope­ra­ti­on and by 1928 more than half of the SBB lines had been elec­tri­fied. Alre­a­dy in the inter­war peri­od, Switz­er­land took a lea­ding role in elec­tri­fi­ca­ti­on on an inter­na­tio­nal scale. For mili­ta­ry reasons, a fur­ther wave of elec­tri­fi­ca­ti­on took place during the Second World War. In an extre­me­ly short time, ano­ther large part of the net­work was elec­tri­fied. This was con­tin­ued after the end of the war to pre­vent unemployment.

From today’s per­spec­ti­ve, elec­tri­fi­ca­ti­on was a good decis­i­on for cli­ma­te pro­tec­tion, even if this argu­ment did not play a role at the time. Today, cli­ma­te pro­tec­tion is the main dri­ver for modal shift and elec­tri­fi­ca­ti­on of trans­port. Com­pared to road trans­port, rail has about a cen­tu­ry’s head start here.

[1] Cf. FOT: Freight transport

[2] Cf. FOT Goods trans­port by rail

[3] Cf. blog artic­le «Impro­ve­ment of freight trans­port: it is high time to do some­thing»

[4] Cf. blog artic­le «Out­sour­cing the last mile and making it non-dis­cri­mi­na­to­ry»

[5] Cf. «The Spa­nish Rolls Rail­way», Peter Affolter

[6] The term «Baden­fahrt» covers two his­to­ric events. On the one hand, the first Swiss train jour­ney from Zurich to Baden and, on the other, the legen­da­ry folk fes­ti­val. The lat­ter cele­bra­tes its 100th anni­ver­sa­ry this year from 18 to 27 August 2023. (badenfahrt.ch)

[7] It would be ques­tionable whe­ther these decis­i­ons are com­pa­ti­ble with the pre­ser­va­ti­on of Swiss neu­tra­li­ty. Howe­ver, we will not go into this fur­ther in this article.

[8] Cf. EC Direc­ti­ve 91/440/EEC on the deve­lo­p­ment of the Com­mu­ni­ty­’s railways

Status quo DAK: between wish and reality

Status quo DAK: between wish and reality

30.05.2023 | Finan­cing, Freight Trans­port Indus­try, Inno­va­ti­on, Poli­tics

We have sup­port­ed the digi­tal auto­ma­tic cou­pler (DAK) since its begin­nings. That is why we are invol­ved in the inter­na­tio­nal umbrel­la orga­ni­sa­ti­on of wagon kee­pers UIP, the Euro­pean DAC Deli­very Pro­gram­me (EDDP) and the Swiss DAK migra­ti­on pro­ject. Howe­ver, much remains to be done at all levels. Here is an inte­rim update on tech­ni­cal and mar­ket developments.

Here’s what it’s all about:

  • Tech­no­lo­gy still rai­ses questions
  • Fair cost-bene­fit trans­fer sought
  • Rising trans­port pri­ces can bring about a shift back to the roads
  • Coope­ra­ti­on with Euro­pe: a must
  • DAK as basis for fun­da­men­tal sys­tem change

Tog­e­ther with the Fede­ral Office of Trans­port (FOT), SBB Cargo and the Asso­cia­ti­on of Public Trans­port (VöV), we at the VAP are dri­ving the Swiss DAK pro­ject for­ward. Initi­al fin­dings from this coope­ra­ti­on were recor­ded in the con­cept report “Auto­ma­ti­on in rail freight trans­port in Switz­er­land, start­ing with the migra­ti­on to digi­tal auto­ma­tic cou­pling” of 24 Octo­ber 2022. They were also incor­po­ra­ted into the cur­rent con­sul­ta­ti­on draft on the future of Swiss freight trans­port and – with some addi­ti­ons – into the dis­patch that the Fede­ral Coun­cil is pre­pa­ring for par­lia­ment in sum­mer 2023. Num­e­rous work­shops and bila­te­ral dis­cus­sions with the rail freight sec­tor have given rise to ques­ti­ons, cri­ti­cisms and pos­si­ble solu­ti­ons that now need to be explo­red in grea­ter depth.

The technology raises questions

Defi­ning the cou­pling head was a first mile­stone. Now it is time to deve­lop and test the digi­tal ele­ments. Two tech­ni­cal approa­ches are being pur­sued for this. With “Power­line-Plus”, the elec­tri­cal impul­ses and data are trans­mit­ted over the same line with a limi­t­ed num­ber of cont­acts. In Switz­er­land, a con­sor­ti­um of experts will be test­ing this approach in the coming months. In the “Sin­gle Pair Ether­net” (SPE) model, on the other hand, sepa­ra­te lines are nee­ded for power and data transmission.

Ques­ti­ons such as these remain open with both tech­ni­cal approaches:

  • Under what wea­ther and cli­ma­tic con­di­ti­ons is relia­ble ope­ra­ti­on possible?
  • Are there down­ti­mes in data trans­mis­si­on during the num­e­rous ope­ra­tio­nal pro­ces­ses (shun­ting, tra­vel (tight radii, inclines …)?
  • Final­ly, what func­tion­a­li­ties does the digi­tal com­po­nent contain?
  • How will the upward com­pa­ti­bi­li­ty be desi­gned, espe­ci­al­ly from DAK4 to DAK5?
  • How will the Euro­pe-wide com­pa­ti­bi­li­ty of the future DAK rol­ling stock be ensured?
  • Curr­ent­ly, the Euro­pean rail­way sec­tor has only a few experts on this topic, which is a great chall­enge. There is also a need for cla­ri­fi­ca­ti­on on mecha­ni­cal aspects such as the force effects of the new cou­pling on the indi­vi­du­al wagon types or the instal­la­ti­on of the DAK in loco­mo­ti­ves due to weight and/or space pro­blems or the safe inte­gra­ti­on into the vehic­le con­trol tech­no­lo­gy. Ques­ti­ons like these must be ans­we­red by 2026.
Cost-benefit transfer can bring about a reverse shift

Invest­ments in DAK migra­ti­on are con­sidera­ble, espe­ci­al­ly for vehic­le owners. We assu­me costs of CHF 20,000 to CHF 40,000 for wagons (depen­ding on wagon type) and CHF 60,000 to CHF 250,000 for loco­mo­ti­ves. Howe­ver, posi­ti­ve effects for the vehic­le owners will only beco­me noti­ceable after com­ple­te migra­ti­on, i.e. after ten years at the ear­liest. This means that costs will rise in the first few years wit­hout addi­tio­nal reve­nue, which will lead to hig­her pri­ces for wagon hire. The rail­way under­ta­kings (RUs) will also have addi­tio­nal expen­ses during the migra­ti­on phase of seve­ral years due to par­al­lel ope­ra­ti­on. High price sen­si­ti­vi­ty could cause a shift back to the roads. We alre­a­dy noti­ced this effect in 2023 with the pas­sed-on price increa­ses due to increased trac­tion cur­rent costs.

We at the VAP are loo­king for solu­ti­ons to these challenges:

  • How can the RUs, as the main win­ners of the DAK, pass on the effi­ci­en­cy gains and cost savings to the vehic­le owners? In mono­po­ly-like struc­tures such as sin­gle wagon­load traf­fic, mar­ket-based mecha­nisms do not work.
  • How high do sub­si­dies (A‑fonds-perdu con­tri­bu­ti­ons, loans, funds) have to be in order to com­pen­sa­te for the une­qual cost-bene­fit trans­fer, and how can a major shift back to the road during migra­ti­on be pre­ven­ted? What hap­pens if sub­si­dies or sub­se­quent finan­cing to the state-owned RUs are almost com­ple­te­ly dis­con­tin­ued with the DAK?

Inves­t­ing in new rol­ling stock is cer­tain­ly con­ceiva­ble or even neces­sa­ry for many wagon owners. But the real ques­ti­on is how exis­ting fleets can be effi­ci­ent­ly con­ver­ted. In doing so, it is important to take the fol­lo­wing aspects into account wit­hout dis­ad­van­ta­ging play­ers through no fault of their own:

  • Even with newer rol­ling stock, there are dif­fi­cul­ties in retro­fit­ting a DAK.
  • The purcha­se of new cars has beco­me 50 per­cent more expen­si­ve due to increased raw mate­ri­al prices.
  • The pro­duc­tion of new cars with DAK has to be star­ted after the spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­ons have been fina­li­sed. The num­ber of units is limi­t­ed at the begin­ning depen­ding on the type of wagon.
  • Older rol­ling stock with a simp­le con­ver­si­on cau­ses lower addi­tio­nal costs.
  • Dif­fe­rent vehic­le owners own iden­ti­cal types. The con­ver­si­on of the type vehic­le must be inde­pen­dent of the kee­per and the high one-off costs must be covered.
Track to track with Europe

The majo­ri­ty of those invol­ved agree: only in close coope­ra­ti­on with Euro­pe can we mas­ter sus­tainable migra­ti­on. The tech­ni­cal and ope­ra­tio­nal chal­lenges of con­ver­si­on are simi­lar on both sides of the bor­der. Ques­ti­ons about the con­ver­si­on pro­cess up to suc­cessful imple­men­ta­ti­on and finan­cing can only be ans­we­red if all experts and decis­i­on-makers are at the table. Unfort­u­na­te­ly, that is only a handful.

Our con­tri­bu­ti­on from Switz­er­land is to deal with the natio­nal cir­cum­s­tances and to prepa­re the ground­work well. This includes laun­ching pilot trans­ports; the first DAK test trains have been run­ning in Switz­er­land since April 2023. We should gather this expe­ri­ence and incor­po­ra­te it into the pan-Euro­pean project.

We would like to show that effi­ci­ent and sus­tainable inno­va­ti­on at Euro­pean level is only pos­si­ble tog­e­ther, using the fol­lo­wing examples:

  • Coor­di­na­te work­shop capa­ci­ties: Coor­di­na­ti­on bet­ween the count­ries and wagon kee­pers must be ensu­red in order to have the wagons to be con­ver­ted in ope­ra­ti­on (natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal rela­ti­ons) rou­ted to the nea­rest or best pos­si­ble work­shop and retur­ned again.
  • Align fun­ding requi­re­ments. The pre­re­qui­si­te for fun­ding is usual­ly an entry in the vehic­le regis­ter and/or a regis­tered office in the respec­ti­ve coun­try. Howe­ver, as wagons are not always used in that coun­try but move throug­hout Euro­pe, fun­ding must be secu­red for wagon kee­pers in all count­ries at the time of migration.
  • Coor­di­na­te migra­ti­on time­ta­ble. Early migra­ti­on leads to new inter­faces in rail freight trans­port. Spe­ci­fi­cal­ly, a wagon con­ver­ted and fun­ded in Switz­er­land can­not run in Ger­ma­ny as long as the DAK migra­ti­on has not star­ted there and the cor­re­spon­ding import and export trans­ports have not been coor­di­na­ted. In addi­ti­on, the vehic­le owner can only use his fixed assets to a limi­t­ed extent.
  • Bring decis­i­on-making bodies tog­e­ther: The tech­ni­cal solu­ti­ons are adopted in the spe­ci­fied bodies of the EU and then adopted by Switz­er­land. Inte­gra­ting these resour­ces into the EU pro­ject would be more expe­di­ent than having Switz­er­land set up its own organisation.

In order to con­tri­bu­te to the over­all rea­li­sa­ti­on at EU level, we in Switz­er­land must con­cen­tra­te on the pre­pa­ra­to­ry work with all the com­pa­nies con­cer­ned and actively push ahead with our test pha­ses and pilot trans­ports. We can­not afford any tee­thing trou­bles with the pro­ducts and specifications.

Basis for a fundamental system change

The DAK is not a tech­ni­cal under­ta­king, but the begin­ning of the neces­sa­ry digi­ta­li­sa­ti­on and inte­gra­ti­on of rail freight trans­port into a sus­tainable logi­stics chain. With the DAK, ele­ments such as auto­ma­tic brake test­ing, auto­ma­tic recor­ding of the wagon sequence, train inte­gri­ty con­trol or elec­t­ro-pneu­ma­tic bra­king are added in addi­ti­on to the cou­pling process.

In order for the DAK to unfold its full tech­ni­cal effect and give rail freight trans­port the neces­sa­ry mar­ket dyna­mics, we have to work on the fol­lo­wing aspects befo­re the start of migration:

  • Rede­fi­ne ope­ra­tio­nal processes
  • Adapt regu­la­to­ry requi­re­ments and regu­la­ti­ons and sim­pli­fy timeframes
  • Prepa­re and adapt infra­struc­tu­re and sidings
  • Train affec­ted groups for migra­ti­on and operation
  • Auto­ma­te inspec­tions and maintenance
  • Auto­ma­te trans­port infor­ma­ti­on for shippers
  • Effec­tively pro­tect digi­tal data from unaut­ho­ri­sed access

We at the VAP also aim to launch a data plat­form and exch­an­ge data in the sense of an eco-data sys­tem. We are con­vin­ced that the DAK will only bring the neces­sa­ry and large-scale added value to the rail­way sec­tor with the exch­an­ge of data. We are the­r­e­fo­re very plea­sed that despi­te initi­al scep­ti­cism from the sec­tor, the FOT has taken up this aspect. It also intends to include freight trans­port in the plan­ned Mobi­li­ty Data Infra­struc­tu­re (MODIG). In our next blog on the DAK, you can read about the ext­ent to which the DAK con­tri­bu­tes to an inno­va­ti­ve, self-suf­fi­ci­ent and cus­to­mer-ori­en­ted rail freight trans­port sys­tem and how the let­ter K can the­r­e­fo­re be trans­la­ted pri­ma­ri­ly as connectivity.

to the pro­ject page Auto­ma­ti­on Rail Freight Transport
Freight Transport Forum: Multimodality and the Future of (Rail) Logistics

Freight Transport Forum: Multimodality and the Future of (Rail) Logistics

12.05.2023 | Events, Freight Trans­port Indus­try, Inno­va­ti­on

The Freight Trans­port Forum, which took place on 20 April 2023, addres­sed the future of logi­stics, mul­ti­mo­da­li­ty and, in par­ti­cu­lar, the steps nee­ded to moder­ni­se Swiss freight trans­port in a digi­tal and dyna­mic world. Top-class spea­k­ers infor­med the audi­ence about the latest rese­arch results, deve­lo­p­ments and chal­lenges in prac­ti­ce as well as new legal frame­work conditions.

The three intro­duc­to­ry spee­ches by repre­sen­ta­ti­ves of the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty, Sara Udavri (IKEA Sup­p­ly AG), Titus Büt­ler (Swiss Post) and Rai­ner Deutsch­mann (Migros-Genos­sen­schafts-Bund) cle­ar­ly demons­tra­ted the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty­’s com­mit­ment to sus­tainable logi­stics. One lever for this is the shift of trans­ports into mul­ti­mo­dal logi­stics chains, in which ener­gy- and space-effi­ci­ent modes of trans­port such as ship­ping and rail should also play a lea­ding role. This is dif­fi­cult in a dyna­mic world with tra­di­tio­nal­ly less fle­xi­ble part­ners and limi­t­ed infra­struc­tu­re capa­ci­ties and invol­ves con­sidera­ble sup­p­ly risks. Howe­ver, based on the fin­dings of rese­arch, pre­sen­ted by Dr. Mat­thi­as Prandt­stet­ter (AIT Aus­tri­an Insti­tu­te of Tech­no­lo­gy) for the pro­vi­si­on and use of data and arti­fi­ci­al intel­li­gence, solu­ti­ons are emer­ging to be able to orga­ni­se incre­asing­ly dyna­mic and resi­li­ent trans­port chains. The data exch­an­ge struc­tures that are neces­sa­ry for this are alre­a­dy acti­ve in the field of CT, as exem­pli­fied by the DX I hub pre­sen­ted by Chris­toph Büch­ner (DX Inter­na­tio­nal) with govern­ment sup­port from Ger­ma­ny, or are in the pro­cess of being crea­ted due to the new legal basis in Switz­er­land, pre­sen­ted by Moni­ka Zosso (Fede­ral Office of Trans­port BAV). Dr. Peter Füg­lis­ta­ler (Fede­ral Office of Trans­port FOT) out­lined how Switz­er­land intends to inte­gra­te the rail freight trans­port sys­tem into mul­ti­mo­dal logi­stics and trans­fer it to the digi­tal world of tomorrow.

In Euro­pe, a nega­ti­ve deve­lo­p­ment can be obser­ved despi­te EEC Direc­ti­ve 91/440: Decli­ning modal split and high sub­si­dies for state rail­ways, litt­le cus­to­mer ori­en­ta­ti­on and inno­va­ti­on, as in many places in Euro­pe com­pe­ti­tors in rail freight trans­port still play a sub­or­di­na­te role. A fun­da­men­tal res­truc­tu­ring of the rail sys­tem is the­r­e­fo­re ine­vi­ta­ble in order to find a way out of the sub­s­idy trap. In doing so, the sys­tem must be made sus­tainable and risk-opti­mi­sed through the imple­men­ta­ti­on of auto­ma­ti­on and digi­ta­li­sa­ti­on by means of the DAK as the first step wit­hout alter­na­ti­ve. Howe­ver, this must be fol­lo­wed by the fur­ther deve­lo­p­ment of the sys­tem, espe­ci­al­ly in wagon­load traf­fic, in order to redu­ce the risk of fail­ure for the cus­to­mers and the owners of the state rail­ways ope­ra­tio­nal­ly and finan­ci­al­ly and to pro­mo­te cus­to­mer ori­en­ta­ti­on and inno­va­ti­on. One pos­si­ble solu­ti­on is to split the sys­tem into a net­work pro­vi­der of seve­ral play­ers with a sys­tem inte­gra­tor and a neu­tral last mile pro­vi­der out­side the trans­port mar­ket (see blog artic­le «Out­sour­cing the last mile and making it non-dis­cri­mi­na­to­ry»).

Review of the Freight Transport Forum: The most important points in detail
MULTIMODALITY – MODERNISING SWISS FREIGHT TRANSPORT

Against the back­drop of the cur­rent deba­te on the finan­cing of rail freight trans­port by the fede­ral govern­ment, the Freight Trans­port Forum dealt with the chal­lenges of mul­ti­mo­da­li­ty in logistics.

Welcome

In his wel­co­me address, Frank Fur­rer poin­ted out the thread run­ning through the VAP’s forums, from safe­ty in the area of con­flict bet­ween costs and qua­li­ty and new forms of coope­ra­ti­on in wagon­load traf­fic in 2019, through poli­tics in the green rush and the actu­al inno­va­ti­on poten­ti­al of auto­ma­ti­on and digi­ta­li­sa­ti­on in 2022, to the cur­rent forum, which deals with the future of logi­stics and mul­ti­mo­da­li­ty. The fun­da­men­tal rene­wal of the rail sys­tem and the har­mo­nious and powerful inter­play of all modes of trans­port are neces­sa­ry to make opti­mal use of the available capa­ci­ties of the various infra­struc­tures, to ensu­re a secu­re sup­p­ly of Switz­er­land and also to crea­te a place for rail in logi­stics. All this is in the inte­rest of Switz­er­land as a place to live and do busi­ness. Since EU Direc­ti­ve 91/440, i.e. well over thir­ty years ago, the sta­tes in Euro­pe have been try­ing to lead their own rail­way com­pa­nies to suc­cess. Despi­te large sub­s­idy pro­gram­mes in UCT, a decli­ning share of rail freight trans­port in the modal split can be obser­ved and rapidly incre­asing sub­si­dies to the state rail­ways are neces­sa­ry. There is no alter­na­ti­ve to moder­ni­s­ing and fun­da­men­tal­ly res­truc­tu­ring the sys­tem. It will once again cost the sta­tes a great deal of money and demand a lot from the indus­try. What it could look like will be dis­cus­sed tog­e­ther today.

Multimodality – On the Revision of the Freight Transport Act

Dr. Peter Füg­lis­ta­ler, Direc­tor of the Fede­ral Office of Trans­port, pre­sen­ted the Fede­ral Coun­cil’s pro­po­sal for the revi­si­on of the Freight Trans­port Act. This focu­ses quite stron­gly on mea­su­res to streng­then mul­ti­mo­da­li­ty, as there are prac­ti­cal­ly no mono­mo­dal trans­ports by rail. A rede­fi­ni­ti­on of the tran­ship­ment plat­forms, which are to enable more mul­ti­mo­da­li­ty and bund­ling, espe­ci­al­ly as city hubs, and their finan­cial and spa­ti­al plan­ning sup­port are an essen­ti­al impro­ve­ment of the frame­work con­di­ti­ons. A tran­ship­ment bonus is inten­ded to pro­vi­de incen­ti­ves to ship­pers to incre­asing­ly com­bi­ne dif­fe­rent modes of trans­port in their logi­stics chains. For the direc­tor of the Fede­ral Office of Trans­port, the Digi­tal Auto­ma­tic Cou­pling DAK is a key fac­tor for suc­cess and less future than urgen­tly nee­ded rea­li­ty. The state is happy to help on the way to this new rea­li­ty, but the initia­ti­ve must come from the economy.

Multimodality – On the needs of business – IKEA

Sara Udva­ri, Cate­go­ry Mana­ger Logi­stics at IKEA Sup­p­ly AG, empha­si­s­es the importance of sus­taina­bi­li­ty in the com­pany’s sup­p­ly chain. The visi­on of crea­ting a bet­ter ever­y­day life for peo­p­le includes respon­si­bi­li­ty for the envi­ron­ment. As IKE­A’s pro­ducts often make a long jour­ney through the sup­p­ly chain, it is important to find sus­tainable solu­ti­ons. To be cli­ma­te posi­ti­ve by 2030, IKEA focu­ses on redu­cing green­house gases, impro­ving ener­gy effi­ci­en­cy and sup­port­ing sup­pli­ers. In trans­port, the aim is to redu­ce green­house gas emis­si­ons by 70%, while in sto­rage the tar­get is to redu­ce CO2 emis­si­ons by 80%. To achie­ve these goals, IKEA is focu­sing on three key areas: incre­asing effi­ci­en­cy, repla­cing fos­sil fuels with inter­mo­dal solu­ti­ons and elec­tri­fi­ca­ti­on, and rethin­king the way pro­ducts are deli­ver­ed. IKEA is alre­a­dy com­mit­ted to inter­mo­dal trans­port and is curr­ent­ly at 46% inter­mo­dal solu­ti­ons glo­bal­ly. Fact-based CO2 cal­cu­la­ti­on is an important part of IKE­A’s sus­taina­bi­li­ty stra­tegy. Pre­set cal­cu­la­ti­ons only give avera­ge values, so fact-based tools should be used to get a rea­li­stic cal­cu­la­ti­on of the car­bon foot­print. IKEA aims to fur­ther deve­lop mul­ti­mo­da­li­ty in order to find even more sus­tainable solu­ti­ons. A pre­re­qui­si­te for this is dyna­mic trans­port chains and a cor­re­spon­ding orga­nis­ed con­stant exch­an­ge of data. Coope­ra­ti­on with part­ners who share the same values is cen­tral to this.

Multimodality – On the needs of the economy – Migros

Rai­ner Deutsch­mann, Head of Safe­ty & Trans­port, is com­mit­ted to a sus­tainable sup­p­ly chain at Migros. The focus is on mul­ti­mo­dal goods logi­stics that com­bi­ne dif­fe­rent means of trans­port such as rail, truck, auto­no­mous dri­ving and Cargo Sous Ter­rain (CST). Tog­e­ther with eco­no­mie­su­is­se, VAP, Astag and IG DH, the role that the various means of trans­port should play in sus­tainable freight logi­stics is being work­ed out. Alt­hough Migros is fun­da­men­tal­ly oppo­sed to sub­si­dies, a limi­t­ed sub­s­idy in the area of tech­no­lo­gy trans­fer is advo­ca­ted as long as it does not distort com­pe­ti­ti­on and the bene­fits reach the cus­to­mer. In order to make goods logi­stics more sus­tainable, the focus is on redu­cing the num­ber of kilo­me­t­res dri­ven and incre­asing auto­ma­ti­on. Good mul­ti­mo­da­li­ty requi­res a com­ple­te rede­sign of the rail­way. CST is in the imple­men­ta­ti­on phase and is alre­a­dy well advan­ced. Switz­er­lan­d’s lar­gest warehouse in Ebi­kon also ser­ves as a test site for auto­no­mous dri­ving. For trucks, seve­ral drive tech­no­lo­gies are still being inves­ti­ga­ted, such as bio­gas, elec­tric or H2. In order to sel­ect the most effi­ci­ent means of tra­vel with the most sui­ta­ble drive, Migros eva­lua­tes data from GPS tracks. Rai­ner Deutsch­man­n’s com­mit­ment shows that com­pa­nies can and must live up to their respon­si­bi­li­ty towards the envi­ron­ment. Coope­ra­ti­on with various part­ners and the use of new tech­no­lo­gies are key suc­cess factors.

Multimodality – On the needs of business – Post Office

Titus Büt­ler shed light on mul­ti­mo­da­li­ty in Swiss Pos­t’s trans­ports and the needs of its cus­to­mers, who expect fast, relia­ble and afforda­ble deli­veries. Swiss Post stri­ves to meet these needs by ensu­ring fre­quent and relia­ble trans­port, offe­ring com­pe­ti­ti­ve pri­ces and pro­vi­ding important data. There are 45 pos­tal trains daily with a punc­tua­li­ty rate of 94.4%. Howe­ver, the truck is about 25–40% fas­ter from ramp to ramp com­pared to the train, even if the truck still has to pile up the goods. This has led to a decli­ne in the rail share. Nevert­hel­ess, Swiss Post con­ti­nues to rely on rail and is the­r­e­fo­re try­ing to build infra­struc­tu­re to speed up rail trans­port, such as let­ter cen­tres with ramp tracks and its own rail ter­mi­nals (kV) at the three large par­cel cen­tres. Since Swiss Post has to ful­fil a basic ser­vice man­da­te, the acce­le­ra­ti­on of rail trans­ports must also be sup­port­ed in the frame­work con­di­ti­ons. Approa­ches for this are qua­li­fied express rou­tes, prio­ri­ti­sa­ti­on of time-cri­ti­cal freight traf­fic next to pas­sen­ger trains (key words: prio­ri­ty depar­tu­re of the fast goods train befo­re the sub­ur­ban train at the node), acce­le­ra­ti­on of shun­ting work inclu­ding brake tests and the use of fixed bi-modal drive compositions.

Modernisation of freight transport in Switzerland and Europe through multimodality

Jür­gen Maier has sum­ma­ri­sed facts on the moder­ni­sa­ti­on of freight trans­port in Switz­er­land and Euro­pe through mul­ti­mo­da­li­ty on the basis of infor­ma­ti­on from the umbrel­la orga­ni­sa­ti­on UIP – INTERNATIONAL UNION OF WAGON KEEPERS. Sur­veys show that mul­ti­mo­dal logi­stics are in demand and that rail is regard­ed by poli­ti­ci­ans as the back­bone of mul­ti­mo­dal freight trans­port. Howe­ver, for rail to turn this oppor­tu­ni­ty into rea­li­ty, a Euro­pe-wide sys­tem chan­ge is neces­sa­ry. Espe­ci­al­ly in WLV, the pro­ces­ses and orga­ni­sa­ti­on have remain­ed unch­an­ged for 100 years. A holi­stic view is requi­red that includes ports, modu­lar sys­tems, digi­tal plat­forms, intel­li­gent infra­struc­tu­re, digi­tal net­wor­king in the train net­work, con­sis­tent spa­ti­al plan­ning and inte­gra­ti­on into city logi­stics. The future is digi­tal, and the tech­no­lo­gi­cal­ly inno­va­ti­ve Digi­tal Auto­ma­tic Cou­pler (DAC) pro­ject, which is curr­ent­ly being tes­ted by wagon kee­pers and freight rail­ways, is a key step in this direction.

Modernisierung des Güterverkehrs in der Schweiz und Europa durch Multimodalität

Jür­gen Maier hat anhand von Infor­ma­tio­nen der Dach­or­ga­ni­sa­ti­on UIP – INTERNATIONAL UNION OF WAGON KEEPERS Fak­ten zur Moder­ni­sie­rung des Güter­ver­kehrs in der Schweiz und Euro­pa durch Mul­ti­mo­da­li­tät zusam­men­ge­fasst. Umfra­gen zei­gen, dass eine mul­ti­mo­da­le Logis­tik gefragt ist und die Schie­ne in der Poli­tik als Rück­grat des mul­ti­mo­da­len Güter­ver­kehrs betrach­tet wird. Damit die Bahn diese Chan­ce in die Rea­li­tät umset­zen kann, ist aller­dings ein euro­pa­wei­ter Sys­tem­wech­sel not­wen­dig. Vor allem im WLV sind die Pro­zes­se und die Orga­ni­sa­ti­on seit 100 Jahre unver­än­dert. Eine ganz­heit­li­che Betrach­tung ist erfor­der­lich, die Häfen, modu­la­re Sys­te­me, digi­ta­le Platt­for­men, intel­li­gen­te Infra­struk­tur, digi­ta­le Ver­net­zung im Zugs­ver­band, kon­se­quen­te Raum­pla­nung und Inte­gra­ti­on in die City-Logis­tik ein­schliesst. Die Zukunft ist digi­tal, und das tech­no­lo­gi­sche inno­va­ti­ve Pro­jekt “Digi­tal Auto­ma­tic Cou­pler (DAC)”, das der­zeit von Wagen­hal­tern und Güter­bah­nen getes­tet wird, ist weg­wei­send. The “C” in DAC can also stand for “con­nec­ted”. Auto­ma­ted and net­work­ed sys­tems are neces­sa­ry for a thri­ving eco­no­my and socie­ty in the future. Jür­gen Maier empha­si­s­es that coope­ra­ti­on at the poli­ti­cal, stra­te­gic, ope­ra­tio­nal and tech­ni­cal levels is important to achie­ve the goals.

Panel discussion

In the panel dis­cus­sion that fol­lo­wed, there was agree­ment that for the WLV to exist, its com­pre­hen­si­ve reor­ga­ni­sa­ti­on is neces­sa­ry, as was also made clear in the con­sul­ta­ti­on respon­ses on the fur­ther deve­lo­p­ment of freight trans­port. It was men­tio­ned in pas­sing that this poli­ti­cal deba­te was initia­ted by VAP Pre­si­dent Josef Ditt­li with his moti­on and that the VAP has con­tri­bu­ted a lot to the indus­try­’s united stand on this issue. The aspect of an over­all visi­on that includes the topics of ener­gy and food poli­cy was inte­res­t­ing. In sur­face freight trans­port there is no modal shift tar­get, there is a free choice of trans­port mode. This makes it all the more important to make rail trans­port more attrac­ti­ve in order to deve­lop a com­pe­ti­ti­ve alter­na­ti­ve and sup­ple­ment to road trans­port, becau­se the road would not be able to absorb the loss of all WLV. The DAK offers a first step towards incre­asing effi­ci­en­cy and thus offers an ine­vi­ta­ble pre­re­qui­si­te for the fun­da­men­tal trans­for­ma­ti­on of WLV.

There was also a deba­te on whe­ther trans­port always has to be fas­ter and how to recon­ci­le the com­pe­ti­ti­ve advan­ta­ge of fast trans­port with sus­tainable logi­stics and an ali­gned sup­p­ly chain. The par­ti­ci­pan­ts agreed that all stake­hol­ders invol­ved must par­ti­ci­pa­te in a net­work­ed rede­sign to find a sus­tainable solu­ti­on for the future. The dis­cus­sion ended with the con­clu­si­on that prio­ri­ti­sa­ti­on, reduc­tion of pro­cess inef­fi­ci­en­ci­es and digi­tal net­wor­king are the keys to on-time, low-cost and fast delivery.

The future of (rail) logistics

With the Fede­ral Mobi­li­ty Infra­struc­tu­re Act, the fede­ral govern­ment plans to crea­te a public data plat­form to sim­pli­fy mul­ti­mo­dal solu­ti­ons and net­work all the play­ers invol­ved. In the after­noon, spea­k­ers from the fede­ral govern­ment, aca­de­mia and busi­ness high­ligh­ted in their pre­sen­ta­ti­ons how the fede­ral govern­ment is approa­ching the topic and what requi­re­ments the ship­ping indus­try has for multimodality.

The future of logistics

The pre­sen­ta­ti­on by Dr. Mat­thi­as Prandt­stet­ter dealt with the future of logi­stics and the need to act to achie­ve cli­ma­te neu­tra­li­ty. It was stres­sed that just swit­ching to e‑trucks is not enough and alter­na­ti­ve logi­stics solu­ti­ons must be used. Rail should be estab­lished as a real alter­na­ti­ve to road, as it is more ener­gy effi­ci­ent and allows for strong bund­ling. Syn­chro­mo­dal trans­ports were pre­sen­ted as the con­cept of the future, where ships and rail­ways form the basic sup­p­ly and trucks serve as fee­ders and back-up solu­ti­ons. Trans­port decis­i­ons are made in real time and by the sys­tem, simi­lar to the digi­tal inter­net, which is cal­led the phy­si­cal inter­net. The importance for the rail­ways lies in digi­ta­li­sa­ti­on, relia­bi­li­ty and fle­xi­bi­li­ty, as well as the equi­va­lence of freight and pas­sen­ger transport.

Federal law on the federal mobility data infrastructure

Moni­ka Zosso holds the co-lea­der­ship of the Direc­to­ra­te Busi­ness Sec­tion as well as the pro­ject manage­ment “Data for an effi­ci­ent mobi­li­ty sys­tem” at the Fede­ral Office of Trans­port. In her pre­sen­ta­ti­on, she intro­du­ced the Fede­ral Mobi­li­ty Data Infra­struc­tu­re Act (MODIG). Mobi­li­ty data is to be con­side­red as a sys­tem-rele­vant infra­struc­tu­re to make the mobi­li­ty sys­tem more effi­ci­ent, to satis­fy indi­vi­du­al mobi­li­ty needs, to ope­ra­te infra­struc­tures more effi­ci­ent­ly and to pro­mo­te inno­va­tions. MODIG shall faci­li­ta­te inno­va­ti­ve solu­ti­ons for all actors in the mobi­li­ty eco­sys­tem and enable the spa­ti­al data infra­struc­tu­re for mobi­li­ty. The Natio­nal Data Net­wor­king Infra­struc­tu­re Mobi­li­ty (NADIM) sup­ports the ope­ra­ti­on and fur­ther deve­lo­p­ment of MODI and pro­vi­des tech­ni­cal sup­port, stan­dar­di­s­a­ti­on, expert sup­port, con­so­li­da­ti­on and inte­gra­ti­on of data. This solu­ti­on is pro­vi­ded by the state wit­hout any com­mer­cial bene­fit being sought. Pos­si­ble use cases in the field of logi­stics are trans­port and route plan­ning for all modes of trans­port, wher­eby an appli­ca­ti­on for this should be pro­vi­ded by the indus­try. Exch­an­ge with the freight sec­tor is neces­sa­ry and desi­ra­ble for this.

CT4.0 – Digital data hub for combined transport

Chris­toph Büch­ner, Co-Direc­tor at DX Inter­mo­dal in Frank­furt, was plea­sed to be able to show an inno­va­ti­on from Ger­ma­ny, as the EU nor­mal­ly looks rather envious­ly at Switz­er­land. His pre­sen­ta­ti­on on the topic of KV4.0 dealt with the goal of the Fede­ral Minis­try of Digi­tal Affairs and Trans­port BMVD to crea­te a com­mon data hub for the exch­an­ge of data within the inter­mo­dal sup­p­ly chain. The KV4.0 data hub is inten­ded to enable an end-to-end infor­ma­ti­on chain and trans­pa­ren­cy so that the data is unders­tood by ever­yo­ne in the same way, and to avoid digi­tal iso­la­ted solu­ti­ons. The data hub sup­ports various mes­sa­ge types and is mar­ke­ted by DX Inter­mo­dal GmbH and is inter­na­tio­nal­ly posi­tio­ned with pro­ject part­ners. Curr­ent­ly, 16 play­ers are alre­a­dy con­nec­ted to the plat­form and are test­ing it. It is a data hub, not a plat­form, and DXI has no access to the data. The KV4.0 pro­ject is a pro­mi­sing step towards the digi­ta­li­sa­ti­on of inter­mo­dal sup­p­ly chains and can con­tri­bu­te to redu­cing the com­pe­ti­ti­ve dis­ad­van­ta­ges of com­bi­ned trans­port com­pared to road haulage.

New inno­va­ti­on approa­ches from prac­ti­ce – unfort­u­na­te­ly drop­ped out. Jens Engel­mann made a spon­ta­neous input on opti­mi­sed trans­port opti­ons with arti­fi­ci­al intelligence.

Panel discussion

In the con­clu­ding panel dis­cus­sion, the after­noon’s topics were dis­cus­sed in grea­ter depth, in par­ti­cu­lar the importance of plan­ning data and real-time data in the future as well as the con­cept of the phy­si­cal inter­net. Here, goods inde­pendent­ly find their way through an inter­mo­dal trans­port net­work, which redu­ces empty runs and enables bet­ter uti­li­sa­ti­on of capa­ci­ties. Stan­dar­di­s­a­ti­on on an EU-wide level was also dis­cus­sed to achie­ve har­mo­ni­sa­ti­on of lan­guage in data plat­forms and enable net­work opti­mi­sa­ti­on with AI. One par­ti­ci­pant stres­sed that AI is not intel­li­gent, but that the algo­rithm must have the right data and defi­ni­ti­ons to achie­ve good results. Data secu­ri­ty was also an important aspect, with data sove­reig­n­ty always remai­ning with the sen­der of the data in the models pre­sen­ted. The pos­si­bi­li­ties that arise with digi­ta­li­sa­ti­on, the cor­rect hand­ling of data and arti­fi­ci­al intel­li­gence are also very great for trans­port logistics.

Summary of the Forum and Farewell

At the end of the forum, Dr. Frank Fur­rer sum­ma­ri­sed the fin­dings of the day. The cus­to­mers have shown that rail is not folk­lo­re, but a pos­si­ble instru­ment to achie­ve envi­ron­men­tal and sup­p­ly poli­cy goals. The self-image of the mem­bers of the VAP is to pro­mo­te the shift of indus­try to rail. The VAP advo­ca­tes for bet­ter frame­work con­di­ti­ons in poli­tics and for sim­pli­fi­ca­ti­on of the often unneces­s­a­ri­ly com­pli­ca­ted regu­la­ted rail­way sys­tem in its expert advice to its mem­bers. A more dyna­mic world demands adap­ta­ble trans­port chains and red­un­dant approa­ches to meet needs. For this, rail freight, which has remain­ed unch­an­ged for the last 100 years, needs a fun­da­men­tal rede­sign. We need net­wor­king of all modes of trans­port, inclu­ding under­ground and across bor­ders. For the future, trans­port logi­stics needs a mobi­li­ty eco­sys­tem that enables data exch­an­ge and net­wor­king. The chall­enge here is har­mo­nis­ed inter­faces. Two years ago, the VAP sub­mit­ted a fun­ding appli­ca­ti­on for the SGV data plat­form, which was rejec­ted, citing MODIG. Howe­ver, it should not be over­loo­ked that the pro­ject was deve­lo­ped for pas­sen­ger trans­port and that, for exam­p­le, no trucks are yet plan­ned on MODIG. The VAP wants to bring goods onto the rail­way. To achie­ve this, the rail­way must per­form well, satis­fy­ing all pro­vi­ders, cus­to­mers and poli­ti­ci­ans, in coope­ra­ti­on and com­pe­ti­ti­on, using the capa­ci­ties in a tar­ge­ted way. It makes sense to start small but think big.

We look back on a suc­cessful Freight Trans­port Forum, where mee­ting and exchan­ging ideas was not negle­c­ted either.

Innovation in rail transport: DAC as a pioneer

Innovation in rail transport: DAC as a pioneer

27.02.2023 | Inno­va­ti­on, Ope­ra­ti­ons

In step with Euro­pe and with sub­stan­ti­al à fonds perdu finan­cing, the migra­ti­on to DAK will suc­ceed. We at the VAP are joi­ning forces with the BAV, VöV, part­ner com­pa­nies and coor­di­na­ted with Euro­pean insti­tu­ti­ons to deve­lop the pro­ject for the digi­ta­li­sa­ti­on and auto­ma­ti­on of Swiss rail freight trans­port. In this blog artic­le we pre­sent a cur­rent overview.

This is what it’s all about:
  • Why DAC migra­ti­on is so important for Swiss rail freight.
  • What rea­li­stic and fair finan­cing must look like.
  • How a smooth, cross-bor­der migra­ti­on of DAC can be achieved.

In Switz­er­land, the poli­ti­cal dis­cus­sion on the future of rail freight trans­port has been initia­ted. Until mid-Febru­ary 2023, the fede­ral govern­ment will con­sult on the ques­ti­on: how much freight trans­port by rail do we want in the future? A key ele­ment of this is the com­pre­hen­si­ve moder­ni­sa­ti­on of rail freight trans­port by means of a modern digi­tal auto­ma­tic cou­pling (DAC) – this is inten­ded to com­pre­hen­si­ve­ly renew pre­vious labour-inten­si­ve and time-con­sum­ing work pro­ces­ses in rail freight trans­port. Thanks to digi­ta­li­sa­ti­on and auto­ma­ti­on, rail freight trans­port should then beco­me more effi­ci­ent, more powerful and thus more com­pe­ti­ti­ve, and in future play a lea­ding role in mul­ti­mo­dal logi­stics. The inno­va­ti­on of rail freight trans­port is a Euro­pean mat­ter, as Switz­er­land is part of the inter­ope­ra­ble Euro­pean rail­way net­work. Trans­ports should also con­ti­nue to take place across bor­ders wit­hout obs­ta­cles. This is why Swiss com­pa­nies are actively invol­ved in the EU’s Euro­pe’s Rail inno­va­ti­on programme.

We would like to take this oppor­tu­ni­ty to give you an inte­rim update on our cur­rent work and challenges.

General

The VAP is com­mit­ted to very close coor­di­na­ti­on with the Euro­pean pro­ject – Euro­pean DAC Deli­very Pro­gram (EDDP) of Euro­pe’s Rail. Why?

Euro­pean freight trans­port urgen­tly needs com­pre­hen­si­ve inno­va­ti­on to be able to sur­vi­ve in the high­ly com­pe­ti­ti­ve trans­port sec­tor in the future or to be part of a modern sup­p­ly chain – the DAC is the key pro­ject for this.
Most wagon fleets are used or ren­ted out inter­na­tio­nal­ly and accor­din­gly the migra­ti­on must be coor­di­na­ted across bor­ders.
The tech­ni­cal spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­ons, which are defi­ned at EU level, apply to all count­ries and must also be appli­ed in Switz­er­land.
A com­mon purcha­sing poli­cy for the new cou­plings helps to redu­ce the unit price and one can fall back on uni­form requi­re­ments.
The chal­lenges – with a few excep­ti­ons – are iden­ti­cal in many count­ries. Regar­ding the migra­ti­on time­line, there are major dif­fe­ren­ces.
Inter­na­tio­nal coor­di­na­ti­on means opti­mal use / deploy­ment of limi­t­ed resour­ces and experts.

In Switz­er­land, we are curr­ent­ly focu­sing on important preli­mi­na­ry work for the con­cre­ti­sa­ti­on of the over­all migra­ti­on and also on the con­tents for the mes­sa­ge, which will be the basis for the imple­men­ta­ti­on of the migration.

Financing

VöV, VAP and SBB, as important repre­sen­ta­ti­ves of the rail­way indus­try, agree that such a large invest­ment for the DAC migra­ti­on must be sup­port­ed with appro­pria­te finan­cing tools and mechanisms.

There is agree­ment that a pre­do­mi­nant “à fonds perdu” par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on of the fede­ral govern­ment and sup­ple­men­ta­ry inte­rest-free loans are neces­sa­ry. Fur­ther­mo­re, the VAP in par­ti­cu­lar repea­ted­ly poin­ted out the need for a clean cost-bene­fit balan­ce. It ulti­m­ate­ly found its way into the agree­ments on the DAC with the BAV. As is well known, the invest­ments in the DAC migra­ti­on are main­ly incur­red by the vehic­le owners, while the bene­fits will only mate­ria­li­se much later after full imple­men­ta­ti­on. On the one hand, it is the­r­e­fo­re neces­sa­ry to regu­la­te the lon­ger phase of pre-finan­cing until the bene­fits begin to accrue. Above all, howe­ver, the bene­fits will be felt first and fore­most by the rail­way under­ta­kings (RUs) and the infra­struc­tu­re mana­gers (IMs). They will bene­fit from more effi­ci­ent pro­ces­ses, whe­re­as vehic­le owners will see litt­le bene­fit. The invest­ment must be borne joint­ly by the actors in accordance with the poten­ti­al bene­fits. In view of the mar­ket con­di­ti­ons, it will only be pos­si­ble to a limi­t­ed ext­ent to gene­ra­te this pro­cess through hig­her ren­tal inco­me. The finan­cing con­cerns a time span of at least 15 years. Con­se­quent­ly, we sug­gested that the draft law should defi­ne appro­pria­te mecha­nisms for joint finan­cing accor­ding to the actu­al bene­fits that accrue, in a bin­ding and fair man­ner for all par­ties invol­ved, on the basis of “cost-bene­fit analyses”.

To this end, the VAP – tog­e­ther with the umbrel­la orga­ni­sa­ti­on of the UIP – will con­tri­bu­te data and facts on invest­ment and cost/benefit plan­ning and actively participate.

The con­cre­te finan­cing moda­li­ties within the EU are still open at pre­sent; solu­ti­ons still have to be found in par­ti­cu­lar regar­ding the par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on of the EU and the mem­ber states.

Engineering

For a suc­cessful and effi­ci­ent imple­men­ta­ti­on of the DAC migra­ti­on, com­pe­tent engi­nee­ring is requi­red, which defi­nes the con­ver­si­on mea­su­res for the spe­ci­fic fleet, pro­vi­des the tech­ni­cal spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­ons for the orders and the con­ver­si­on work, and defi­nes the veri­fi­ca­ti­on for qua­li­ty assu­rance. In the coming months, the Euro­pean EDDP pro­gram­me will work tog­e­ther to deve­lop the neces­sa­ry foun­da­ti­ons. On this basis, the pre­re­qui­si­tes for the natio­nal DAC migra­ti­on must be work­ed out.

Migration

Each coun­try must carry out exten­si­ve pre­pa­ra­to­ry work so that the infor­ma­ti­on and basics are available at time X of effec­ti­ve imple­men­ta­ti­on. Accor­din­gly, the pro­ject deals with the fol­lo­wing ques­ti­ons, among others:

Deter­mi­na­ti­on of work­shop capacities

  • Neces­sa­ry “pop-up” workshops
  • Neces­sa­ry resources

Owner-spe­ci­fic plan­ning of the conversion

  • Vehic­le type and fleet sizes
  • Cri­ti­cal ele­ments and pos­si­ble solu­ti­ons in coope­ra­ti­on with EDDP
  • Owner-spe­ci­fic scheduling

Data and infor­ma­ti­on pool

  • Updating the vehic­le regis­ter as a basis for funding
  • Time­ly pro­vi­si­on of infor­ma­ti­on to indi­vi­du­al actors / stake­hol­der groups

Mate­ri­al pool

  • Pro­cu­re­ment of com­pon­ents for DAC migration
  • Plan­ning of mate­ri­al quan­ti­ties and deli­very dates
  • Coor­di­na­ti­on of mate­ri­al flows to the con­ver­si­on workshops
  • Ensu­ring sup­port in ope­ra­ti­on (repair material)

Curr­ent­ly we see a focus on the loco­mo­ti­ves to be con­ver­ted, as these are pri­ma­ri­ly on natio­nal rou­tes in the WLV and must be equip­ped with DAC trains at the start of operation.

In Switz­er­land, as is alre­a­dy the case with SBB-Cargo, fur­ther “pilot trans­ports” will be plan­ned as early as pos­si­ble in order to be able to intro­du­ce the resul­ting fin­dings and results at EU level and to be able to advan­ce the pro­ject as a whole.

Organisation

On the one hand, the VAP has increased the resour­ces in the Gene­ral Secre­ta­ri­at, on the other hand it is repre­sen­ted with its mem­bers in various natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal mee­tings and working groups.

For the future or the effec­ti­ve imple­men­ta­ti­on we see some chal­lenges in the design and staf­fing of the over­all orga­ni­sa­ti­on – be it in the inter­na­tio­nal con­text (where is which aspect coor­di­na­ted or also moni­to­red) as well as in the cross-sec­to­ral orga­ni­sa­ti­on of Swiss DAC migration.

Did you know that…
  • …wit­hout DAC, no freight train – WLV, block train or Rola – will be able to run on fully equip­ped ETCS Level 3 (Euro­pean Train Con­trol Sys­tem) lines in future, as the tech­ni­cal requi­re­ments, espe­ci­al­ly train inte­gri­ty, are not met. The infra­struc­tu­re upgrade to ETCS Level 3 will main­ly take place on busy main lines and will enable an increase in capa­ci­ty with the dyna­mic block. Allo­wing trains to con­ti­nue to run wit­hout train inte­gri­ty on sec­tions of line ope­ra­ted in this way will invol­ve a great deal of effort.
  • …the DAC will be an important com­po­nent for digi­tal data exch­an­ge and sus­tainable logi­stics, in the sense of cus­to­mers and the cli­ma­te, can only be rea­li­sed with the par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on of all play­ers. This is the reason why the VAP is in any case com­mit­ted to the rea­li­sa­ti­on of a data plat­form based on “MODIG”. With DAC we achie­ve an increase in effi­ci­en­cy of the enti­re “sup­p­ly chain”.
  • …DAC will allow the tra­di­tio­nal WLV to be run more effi­ci­ent­ly and will help to make it self-sus­tai­ning at the latest after the migra­ti­on has been completed.

→ To learn more about the DAC pro­gram­me, click on: https://rail-research.europa.eu/european-dac-delivery-programme/

Subsidising wagonload traffic: preventing distortion of competition and discrimination

Subsidising wagonload traffic: preventing distortion of competition and discrimination

17.02.2023 | Com­pe­ti­ti­on in rail freight trans­port, Finan­cing, Freight Trans­port Indus­try, Inno­va­ti­on, Ope­ra­ti­ons, Poli­tics

We com­ment on the Fede­ral Coun­cil’s con­sul­ta­ti­on draft “Fur­ther deve­lo­p­ment of the frame­work con­di­ti­ons for Swiss freight trans­port”. We cri­ti­cal­ly assess the pro­po­sals from the point of view of freight rail cus­to­mers and demons­tra­te the neces­si­ty of a legal inde­pen­dence of sys­tem transport.

Yes and but to variant 1

With vari­ant 1, the Fede­ral Coun­cil wants to digi­ta­li­se rail freight trans­port with auto­ma­tic digi­tal cou­pling (DAK). In this way, it posi­ti­ons rail as part of mul­ti­mo­dal logi­stics. Accom­pany­ing this, it pro­vi­des for spa­ti­al plan­ning mea­su­res, invest­ment aid and tran­ship­ment and loa­ding incen­ti­ves that cushion the addi­tio­nal costs of the sys­tem break bet­ween rail and other modes of trans­port. Until auto­ma­ti­on is imple­men­ted, the Fede­ral Coun­cil wants to com­pen­sa­te for the unco­ver­ed costs of sys­tem traf­fic. We wel­co­me the thrust of vari­ant 1 in essence, but have reser­va­tions and note a fun­da­men­tal need for adjustment.

Making the subsidised first/last mile independent

We want to and must make sys­tem trans­port more sus­tainable. This requi­res a rede­sign of all pro­ces­ses, incen­ti­ve instru­ments, mar­ket mecha­nisms and inter­faces within mul­ti­mo­dal freight logi­stics. The goal must be a self-suf­fi­ci­ent and mar­ket-based sys­tem that does not dis­cri­mi­na­te against any freight rail­ways and is relia­bly available to ship­pers.[1] Until this new con­cept is imple­men­ted, we agree to tem­po­ra­ry finan­cial aid for SBB Car­go’s net­work traf­fic. This finan­cial aid is based on per­for­mance-rela­ted, com­pe­ti­ti­on-neu­tral and non-dis­cri­mi­na­to­ry incen­ti­ves – and on making the first/last mile inde­pen­dent in a legal­ly inde­pen­dent SBB com­pa­ny. This is the only way to gua­ran­tee Switz­er­lan­d’s secu­ri­ty of sup­p­ly and the future via­bi­li­ty of the railways.

Preventing distortion of competition and discrimination

By trans­fer­ring respon­si­bi­li­ty for sys­tem traf­fic to SBB Cargo, the Fede­ral Coun­cil is mono­po­li­sing around 70% of the freight trans­port volu­me. At the same time, SBB Cargo is also the main pro­vi­der of block train and com­bi­ned trans­port ser­vices. This com­bi­na­ti­on of inte­rests can lead to dis­cri­mi­na­ti­on against sys­tem and block train cus­to­mers on the one hand, but also to dis­tor­ti­ons of com­pe­ti­ti­on vis-à-vis other pro­vi­ders of block train and com­bi­ned trans­port ser­vices on the other – irre­spec­ti­ve of the com­pen­sa­ti­on paid to sys­tem trans­port. This con­sists of the nati­on­wi­de ser­vice of tran­ship­ment and loa­ding faci­li­ties and should the­r­e­fo­re be legal­ly inde­pen­dent. Since the cor­re­spon­ding ser­vices and resour­ces are alre­a­dy com­bi­ned in an inde­pen­dent orga­ni­sa­tio­nal unit today, the trans­for­ma­ti­on effort would remain low. Howe­ver, the Fede­ral Coun­cil would have to spe­ci­fy Art. 9a para. 7 of the Freight Trans­port Act (GüTG).

Consistently supervise new system operator

During the limi­t­ed phase of public com­pen­sa­ti­on, but also after­wards, the sys­tem ope­ra­tor should be con­sis­t­ent­ly moni­to­red in terms of per­for­mance, qua­li­ty, pro­duc­ti­vi­ty and costs. Care must be taken to ensu­re that the finan­cial aid is quick­ly redu­ced and that SBB Car­go’s busi­ness model is moder­nis­ed. This pre­vents dis­ad­van­ta­ges and ensu­res smooth, nati­on­wi­de sys­tem traf­fic in the long term. Tar­ge­ted moni­to­ring of the deve­lo­p­ment of volu­mes and cus­to­mer struc­tu­re should gua­ran­tee the lat­ter in par­ti­cu­lar in the long term. Such moni­to­ring requi­res an amend­ment to Art. 9a GüTG.

Addi­tio­nal back­ground infor­ma­ti­on and opi­ni­ons can be found in our respon­se to the con­sul­ta­ti­on on the «Wei­ter­ent­wick­lung der Rah­men­be­din­gun­gen für den Schwei­zer Güter­trans­port».

[1] Cf. video “Rail freight trans­port of the future”: www.cargorail.ch/#video

Consultation on surface rail freight transport: two variants, many question marks

Consultation on surface rail freight transport: two variants, many question marks

22.12.2022 | Finan­cing, Inno­va­ti­on, Poli­tics

The Fede­ral Coun­cil’s report on the «Future ori­en­ta­ti­on of rail freight trans­port in the area» was sent out for con­sul­ta­ti­on. In it, the eco­no­mic via­bi­li­ty of sin­gle wagon­load trans­port is pre­sen­ted as impos­si­ble wit­hout any evi­dence. As alter­na­ti­ves, the fede­ral govern­ment envi­sa­ges shif­ting rail freight trans­port to the road in the medi­um term or sub­si­di­sing it per­ma­nent­ly. We think: It’s more com­pli­ca­ted than that.

That’s the point:
  • Two vari­ants and what they do not take into account
  • Fun­da­men­tal reor­ga­ni­sa­ti­on of the net­work necessary
  • Out­sour­cing of the last mile cen­tral to more competition

 

The fur­ther deve­lo­p­ment of rail freight trans­port in the coun­try is curr­ent­ly the sub­ject of hea­ted deba­te. On 2 Novem­ber 2022, the Fede­ral Coun­cil sub­mit­ted its dis­patch on the «Fur­ther deve­lo­p­ment of the frame­work con­di­ti­ons for Swiss freight trans­port» for con­sul­ta­ti­on. The report sug­gests that there will be no more sin­gle wagon­load trans­port wit­hout finan­cial sup­port; block trains will not be sub­si­di­sed any­way. The Fede­ral Coun­cil pro­po­ses two options:

  • The sin­gle wagon­load trans­port in the area is fur­ther deve­lo­ped and moder­nis­ed through digi­ta­li­sa­ti­on, auto­ma­ti­on and the crea­ti­on of a data exch­an­ge plat­form. Loca­ti­ons that are neces­sa­ry for suc­cessful area ser­vice will be bet­ter inte­gra­ted into the spa­ti­al plan­ning of the can­tons and the fede­ral govern­ment. Until the moder­ni­sa­ti­on mea­su­res take effect, the sin­gle wagon­load trans­port­will be finan­ci­al­ly sup­port­ed by orde­ring the ser­vice in the form of invest­ment and ope­ra­ting contributions.
  • The sin­gle wagon­load trans­port in the area will be dis­con­tin­ued. The rail sys­tem will be redu­ced to block trains, resul­ting in a mas­si­ve down­si­zing of SBB Cargo.

Both vari­ants are sup­port­ed by the migra­ti­on to digi­tal auto­ma­tic cou­pling (DAK), the pro­mo­ti­on of mul­ti­mo­da­li­ty and Rhine navi­ga­ti­on, and the finan­cing of cli­ma­te-neu­tral dri­ves on rail and Rhine.

Fundamental reorganisation instead of rhetoric

The sin­gle wagon­load trans­port in the area com­pri­ses a good 70% of the traf­fic volu­me in inland trans­port by rail. The Fede­ral Coun­cil’s ques­ti­on as to whe­ther it should be pre­ser­ved is the­r­e­fo­re rather rhe­to­ri­cal. Howe­ver, his con­clu­si­on that it can be suc­cessful­ly ope­ra­ted by SBB Cargo after moder­ni­sa­ti­on with the help of DAK is not a rea­li­stic opti­on eit­her. Rather, the rail freight trans­port in the area must be fun­da­men­tal­ly res­truc­tu­red and ope­ned up to other mar­ket play­ers. In this respect, the Fede­ral Coun­cil’s report falls far short of the expec­ta­ti­ons of cus­to­mers and its own announcements.

Digi­ta­li­sa­ti­on and auto­ma­ti­on will make rail freight trans­port more effi­ci­ent and, above all, more inte­res­t­ing for the logi­stics indus­try: For the first time, rail freight trans­port can be inte­gra­ted online into the logi­stics chains of the eco­no­my and into the train pro­tec­tion of the infra­struc­tu­re mana­gers. The DAK in con­junc­tion with the state data exch­an­ge plat­form in accordance with the Fede­ral Mobi­li­ty Data Infra­struc­tu­re Act (MODIG) is thus THE cen­tral lever for the com­pe­ti­ti­ve­ness of the rail freight trans­portand suc­cess fac­tor num­ber one of this legis­la­ti­ve proposal.

Howe­ver, the sin­gle wagon­load trans­port, which has been a mono­po­ly of the SBB since the rail­way reform in 1999, must be fun­da­men­tal­ly res­truc­tu­red. The roles and pro­ces­ses must be com­ple­te­ly ret­hought. This inter­nal rene­wal requi­res the invol­vement of other mar­ket play­ers in order to design a ser­vice with lower fixed costs and cor­re­spon­din­gly hig­her fle­xi­bi­li­ty. In this respect, the Fede­ral Coun­cil falls behind its report of 30 March 2022. While in its dia­gram there it show­ed a new inter­play of the various play­ers in the rail freight trans­port sys­tem (p. 50/75), in the draft mes­sa­ge it mere­ly pro­po­ses a con­ti­nua­tion of the curr­ent­ly not very suc­cessful model of «all ser­vices from a sin­gle source» of SBB Cargo. Once again, the ques­ti­on of the future via­bi­li­ty of a broad range of ser­vices in the sin­gle wagon­load trans­port in Switz­er­land is equa­ted with the fur­ther deve­lo­p­ment of the state-owned com­pa­ny SBB Cargo.

In fact, cus­to­mers want a vari­ant 1+. In addi­ti­on to the digi­ta­li­sa­ti­on of rail freight trans­port and pro­mo­tio­nal mea­su­res for more mul­ti­mo­da­li­ty, this also includes the reor­ga­ni­sa­ti­on of sin­gle wagon­load trans­port. This includes the neu­tra­li­sa­ti­on and finan­cial sup­port of short-distance deli­very (last mile), the crea­ti­on of a neu­tral digi­tal boo­king and data exch­an­ge plat­form and the pos­si­bi­li­ty of inte­gra­ting pri­va­te wagon­load services.

Industry united for big changes

The IG Wagon­load Trans­port inte­rest group calls for an effi­ci­ent net­work offer (hub and spoke) with more com­pe­ti­ti­on and less dis­cri­mi­na­ti­on. The Fede­ral Coun­cil should take up our com­mon visi­on of rail freight trans­port – which, by the way, was sup­port­ed by the Fede­ral Office of Trans­port FOT – in the defi­ni­ti­ve Fede­ral Coun­cil mes­sa­ge (cf. VAP blog post «Cri­ti­cal view of the fede­ral govern­men­t’s long-term per­spec­ti­ve»). The same appli­es to the con­so­li­da­ted posi­ti­on of the freight rail­way mana­gers of the VöV on how the rail freight trans­port can be ope­ra­ted suc­cessful­ly in the long term in the area (cf. blog­post «Indus­try deve­lo­ps joint solu­ti­on»).

The Fede­ral Coun­cil expects a com­mon stance from the freight trans­port indus­try. It should take a more dif­fe­ren­tia­ted look at their joint assess­ment and the num­e­rous nuan­ces of the rail freight trans­port in the area when sha­ping its future and take grea­ter account of them.

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