30 December 2018 | Railway Gazette International FUTURE RAIL Missing Links How to restore Europe’s missing border links

SIMON MAARFIELD MSC Transport Planning & Policy, KCW GmbH, Berlin

ver fewer direct connections, rapidly disappearing night trains and routes that have lost all their passenger servic- es. No trains between the capital cities ofE neighbouring Baltic countries, poor connections on the French-Spanish frontier and long detours to cross the Slovak border by rail, to name but a few issues. Yes, the picture with regard to cross-border passenger train services in Photo: Simon Maarfield Europe really does look bleak. This negative outlook has sparked A study for the European Commission finds that reinstating international several initiatives to raise awareness of services across borders may not be as difficult or as expensive as the situation and to seek improvements, not least the ‘Missing Links’ campaign previously thought. in 2015 promoted by the Greens/Euro- pean Free Alliance group in the Euro- A cross-border the status of all current and former rail and spring 2018 and has since been service to Wien and 1 pean Parliament. This was spearheaded Payerbach-Reichenau border crossings within the EU and published by the EU Commission. It by the former Chairman of the Trans- calls at Břeclav in EFTA. With pressure on the Euro- is divided into three parts: the Czech Republic. port & Tourism Committee, Michael As well as regional pean Commission growing, in spring • the preparation of an inventory of all Cramer MEP. operations, the 2017 the Directorate-General for Re- existing and former cross-border rail- The campaign, largely directed at the station is also served gional & Urban Policy commissioned way lines between the EU and EFTA by long-distance European Commission, examined 98 EuroCity, , a study from KCW and its project member states, including their clas- dismantled or otherwise closed regional RegioJet and night partners: Comprehensive Analysis of the sification as Missing Links (railway cross-border routes, singling out 15 as trains. Existing Cross-Border Rail Transport border crossings where the infra- potential candidates for reactivation. Connections and Missing Links on the structure is no longer operational) or The campaigners believed these would Internal EU Borders. The rest of this Promising Links (inadequately served represent both much better value for article discusses work carried out as infrastructure); money and offer greater potential for so- part of the study, highlights its find- • analysis of possible new services on cial cohesion than TEN-T level mega- ings and analyses its recommendations Missing Links and Promising Links projects. These routes were subsequently Fig 1. The study for action. in relation to potential demand, eco- divided Europe’s 365 reviewed in State of Play of Cross-Border rail border crossings nomic feasibility and political inter- Railway Sections in Europe, a report pub- into operational and Scope of work est, leading to a shortlist of the Po- lished by the Directorate-General for non-operational. The study covered the 26 EU mem- tentially Most Beneficial Projects for Only 156 carried Mobility & Transport in 2016. regular passenger ber states with rail networks plus Liech- further detailed examination; Until recently, however, there had services in the 2017 tenstein, and . It • the formulation of broader policy been no comprehensive assessment of timetable. was carried out between summer 2017 recommendations. Cross-border lines classified The first part of the study docu- mented a total of 365 railway border crossings which, based on the 2017 pas- senger timetable and local sources with regard to freight traffic, were classified as shown in Fig 1. The crossings and their broad classifications are shown on the map in Fig 2. In 2017 there were 156 border cross- ings with regular passenger services, representing 43% of the total or 77% of operational lines. However, when the quality of passenger services relative to the importance of the route was ex- amined, only 57 routes were deemed to Railway Gazette International | December 2018 31 Missing Links FUTURE RAIL have an adequate level of service, classi- substantially, a situation that has been Possible new services fied as Fully Exploited. exacerbated by the substitution of long- In the second part of the study, the A further 81 routes were classified as distance international services by re- classic four-step demand forecasting Exploited with Shortcomings, meaning gional trains that end at the border. model was used to construct a pan- that either speed or service frequency Examples include the border between European origin-destination matrix of were inadequate. Another 18 routes and the Czech Republic at potential rail demand. This was then were designated Not Fully Exploited, České Velenice, Lichkov on the Czech- assigned to each border crossing with indicating that both speed and fre- Polish border and Forst on the border passenger services on a ‘theoretically quency were of such a low standard between Germany and . fastest route’ basis. Missing Links and that services were unattractive and All this suggests that significant freight-only lines were then individual- potential demand was unlikely to be improvements to cross-border connec- ly ‘opened’ within the model to estimate satisfied. Freight-only and Not Fully tivity by rail may well be possible with- potential demand. These estimates were Exploited border crossings were then out major infrastructure investment. then compared with regionally differ- classified asPromising Links for further Taking one example, only two of nine entiated threshold levels of minimum analysis. operational routes between demand to warrant reactivation or im- These figures led to the first major and Slovakia carried passenger services provement. If a route met or exceeded finding of the study, namely that miss- in 2017, despite historic close ties be- the threshold, it was shortlisted for fur- ing infrastructure is not the only reason tween the countries and the significant ther analysis. for a lack of passenger services. Almost Hungarian-speaking population in The 38 routes in the initial shortlist a quarter of the operational lines are southern Slovakia. were then assessed as follows: freight-only, while about one-third have A total of 176 Missing Links and • an outline passenger service concept extremely poor or no regular passenger Promising Links were identified for sub- was developed on the basis of esti- services. sequent analysis in the second step of the mated demand potential and typical Adding in those lines classified as ex- study. The inventory also shows that 143 regional service standards, exploit- ploited with shortcomings, 72% of the of these do not lie on the TEN-T Net- ing synergies with existing services operational routes could be described work, to which the EU’s rail funding has and rolling stock utilisation wherever as having an inadequate level of service. so far been almost entirely focused. possible; This may well be an underestimate, as Fact sheets, including maps and in- • infrastructure requirements to en- the study did not differentiate between formation on the history, ownership, Fig 2. This map able operation of the proposed cross-border routes served by through operational status, technical data and shows the location service were examined and costed trains and those with trains that start bodies responsible for procuring pas- of Europe’s rail by KCW’s project partner Royal border crossings and or end at a border station. Forcing senger services, were produced for all their classification HaskoningDHV; cross-border passengers to change border crossings other than those clas- according to the • annual operating costs and farebox trains reduces the attractiveness of rail sified as redundant.2 study. revenues were estimated, excluding 32 December 2018 | Railway Gazette International FUTURE RAIL Missing Links

rolling stock procurement, leasing ALPINE INITIATIVE and depreciation; in the short-term almost all lines could be served by MI.CO.TRA points the way legacy rolling stock held by incum- Following the withdrawal of all daytime passenger facilitate day-to-day cross-border travel in the bent railway undertakings. trains between Villach in Austria and Udine in Italy region. More recently, services have been extended Even though rolling stock costs were in December 2009, the Italian autonomous region at weekends to and from the regional capital excluded, the analysis revealed that of Friuli-Venezia Giulia launched the MI.CO.TRA Trieste. Co-funding through the Interreg A project project in 2012 with the aim of re-establishing Connect2ce covers a substantial part of the operating most of the cross-border routes exam- passenger services. MI.CO.TRA stands for costs of the extension for a period of one year. ined were unlikely to be self-sufficient MIglioramento dei COllegamenti TRAnsfrontalieri, Again, it is hoped that services will thrive and that and would therefore need an ongoing meaning improvement in cross-border links. the difference between costs and fares revenue can operating subsidy. This finding is con- The chosen funding vehicle was Interreg A, a be bridged once the EU funding ceases. sistent with the statistic provided by the European Regional Development Fund programme Domestic passengers in Italy also benefit from that supports co-operation between neighbouring the extension, with MI.CO.TRA trains providing Independent Regulators’ Group – Rail regions separated by national borders. A services on the Udine – Cervignano line that was that 83% of passenger train-km in Eu- partnership was established with the Austrian Land previously closed on Saturday afternoons and rope fall under Public Service Obliga- of Kärnten, Austrian national operator ÖBB, which Sundays. In addition, further travel opportunities tions, which for the most part means provided the rolling stock, and Friuli-Venezia were provided in summer 2018 by extending they are publicly funded and that mini- Giulia’s in-house operator FUC, which supplied domestic S-Bahn services in Kärnten to and the multi-system locomotives required. Two daily from Tarvisio-Boscoverde, with good onward mum service standards are specified by return trips serving most intermediate stations connections. public bodies. were introduced in June 2012. EU funds directly Buoyed by the success of MI.CO.TRA, Friuli- In addition, most cross-border routes covered about half the operating costs in the first Venezia Giulia has embarked on a similar venture are characterised not only by lower de- year, providing the vital boost needed to get the to restore cross-border passenger services between mand than comparable domestic routes service off the ground. Italy and Slovenia. Since September 2018 the The service quickly proved to be successful, Interreg A project Crossmoby has been co-funding but also higher costs owing to the need and the two regions were more than happy to two daily return trips between Trieste and for specially equipped rolling stock to continue supporting it after the EU co-funding Ljubljana for a period of one year, using ETR563 cope with different power supply and ceased in June 2013. Demand has boomed to the EMUs owned by Friuli-Venezia Giulia and equipped signalling systems. extent that an additional coach and up to two for use in Slovenia. n In other words, for most border vehicles for ski equipment or cycles are needed in the peak seasons. The author would like to thank Massimiliano Angelotti crossings there is unlikely to be a queue MI.CO.TRA is now widely regarded as an of the Autonomous Region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia of open access operators eager to run essential service both to support tourism and to for providing some of this information. trains if only the infrastructure were reinstated or enhanced. Public authori- ties and in particular their cross-border co-operation therefore play a decisive role in the operation of cross-border passenger trains, especially on regional routes away from the TEN-T Compre- hensive Network and the main centres of population. Local involvement Until this point the study had taken a top-down approach, but the project team wanted to enlist the help of na- tional and regional public authorities to identify the Potentially Most Beneficial Projects. For this reason the preliminary findings were shared with the bodies responsible for the procurement of rail services in all the relevant countries. This generated a range of responses, leading not only to the exclusion of shortlisted routes where a double nega- tive opinion was expressed, but also to the inclusion of lines where the com- petent authority on at least one side of the border supported reactivation or im- provement. This feedback proved to be an essential addition to the quantitative modelling work undertaken in the study. By combining these two approaches the study designated a total of 48 cross- border railway connections as Potentially Most Beneficial Projects (Fig 3)3. These fall into three categories: • 24 Promising Links; these have opera- tional infrastructure and 16 are on the Photo: Carlo Stopar In June 2018 the successful MI.CO.TRA service was extended to and from Trieste at weekends. A train is seen here TEN-T Network; crossing the viaduct in Barcola shortly after leaving Trieste. • 21 Missing Links, of which five are on the TEN-T Network; Railway Gazette International | December 2018 33 Missing Links FUTURE RAIL

• three proposed new links, of which one is on the TEN-T Network. This contact with competent authori- ties also led to useful exchanges that helped shape the policy recommenda- tions and highlight best practice (p32). Based on both the modelling work and the consultation, expanded fact sheets were produced for each border section.4 These detail the current situa- tion and list targeted recommendations for each Missing Link and Promising Link. They also contain simple cost- utility analyses for all routes with high demand potential that were not subject to unanimous negative opinion during the consultation. Recommendations The study offers many detailed con- clusions and recommendations. The most important are summarised here. Gaps in the passenger train network are often not the result of missing or unserviceable infrastructure. A key message is that missing infrastructure — the focus of so much attention — is not necessarily the greatest problem and indeed accounts for only half of the Potentially Most Beneficial Projects in the study, while only 28% of all opera- tional border crossings have passenger services of sufficient quality to come close to meeting potential demand. This suggests that much better use could be Fig 3. The study made of the existing network. The study Comprehensive Networks, that syner- identified 48 first transport hub in B. EU co-financ- recommends that ‘quick wins’ should be gies with measures primarily intended Potentially Most ing rules should stipulate the applica- realised wherever possible, for example to boost freight traffic should be ex- Beneficial Projects, tion of this principle, while legislation of which 22 are by co-ordinating timetables, offering ploited, and that consideration should located on the TEN-T should hinder its violation. through ticketing and extending do- be given to the creation of a dedicated Networks. Locomotive-hauled trains have mestic services by short distances over EU Co-ordinator for cross-border pro- been widely replaced by multiple- border crossings. jects outside the TEN-T Networks. The units. This has increased the cost of Most Missing Links and Promising co-ordinator’s primary role should be interoperability as interoperable train- Links are not on the TEN-T Net- to assist regional authorities to develop sets cost more than non-interoperable works. Cross-border lines that are not their plans, address conflicts and apply trainsets. designated as part of the TEN-T Net- for funding. Newly-acquired rolling stock works do not qualify for funding from Most cross-border passenger train equipped to operate across borders has the Connecting Europe Facility. On services are in receipt of revenue sup- enabled new services in recent years. several cross-border routes the passen- port. Public authorities play a crucial The study notes that EU co-funding for ger service is inadequate because the role in the operation of cross-border interoperable rolling stock would help authorities have been unable to agree passenger trains. The report suggests revive cross-border services and recom- on improvements to the infrastructure. that better use could be made of oppor- mends that acquisition of single-system Of the 21 Potentially Most Beneficial tunities provided by existing Interreg A vehicles should no longer be supported Projects located on the TEN-T Core programmes, which can play an impor- in border regions where multi-system or Comprehensive Networks, only five tant co-ordination role and help solve stock would be required for regional are Missing Links and thus potentially cross-border mobility challenges. Inter- cross-border operations. highly suitable for infrastructure fund- reg A funding should be more widely In some cases cross-border services ing from the CEF. The eligibility of the available to help authorities financially pay higher track access charges than other 16 routes would need to be exam- support services during the start-up domestic services, for example in Italy ined in more detail to determine if in- phase. and Spain. National regulators and/or frastructure measures such as infill elec- The location of electrification and the EU should intervene to ensure that trification would be needed to permit or safety system changeover points influ- national legislation does not discrimi- simplify operation of attractive passen- ences the feasibility of cross-border nate against cross-border traffic. n ger services and the expected types and rail. The study recommends that the volume of freight trains. power supply and train control sys- References 1. Available at https://tinyurl.com/y7axf49e The study recommends that funding tems of country A should continue to 2. See https://tinyurl.com/yavah3wk for cross-border infrastructure projects the first major station of neighbouring 3. See https://tinyurl.com/y7axf49e should also be available for lines that country B, so facilitating operation of 4. See https://tinyurl.com/y7lq3o55 are not part of the TEN-T Core and A’s single-system rolling stock to the