Next stop for Swedish rail reforms? New Government Committee reviewing the organisation of the sector Gunnar Alexandersson Workshop 4, Thredbo 13, Oxford 17 September 2013
Government decision of 8 May 2013 A new Committee is appointed to make a review of the organisation of the Swedish railway sector The purpose of the review is to come up with suggestions for improvement to address future demands on efficiency and sustainability The Government decision follows a request from Parliament in December 2012
Background to the review 25 years of substantial changes in railway organisation, caused by two primary processes: 1. A number of decisions in Parliament aiming at developing the functioning of the railways 2. EU demands on rail organisation linked to the vision of creating a single European railway area
Tendering of long-distance lines BTO tender of Arlanda airport link Extent of deregulation / regulatory reform Vertical separation track/operations; creation of Banverket Decentralisation of regional lines; followed by tendering Deregulation of rail freight services More functions taken over by Banverket SJ corporatisation Deregulation of weekend traffic New railway law Deregulation of international traffic Deregulation of charter traffic Abolishment of SJ s precedence to commercial traffic New law on public transport Social Democratic Government Right-wing/centre/liberal Government The stairway to Swedish railway deregulation and market opening 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 Year
EU policy development 1991 Directive 91/440 2001 First Railway Package 2004 Second Railway Package 2007 Third Railway Package 2012 SERA directive 2013 Fourth Railway Package (proposal)
Overview of regulatory structure
Passengers Freight customers Functions and actors 2013 (selection) Infrastructure maintenance Infrastructure management Licences, safety & market monitoring InfraNord Strukton Baneservice Balfour Beatty VR Track Trafikverket Transportstyrelsen Planning & procurement of public transport Train operations Rolling stock management Train manufacturing Regional public transport authorities Real estate management Jernhusen Train Alliance (A-train, in-house) (SL, in-house) SJ Veolia DSB DB A-train NSB/Tågk. IT Cleaning Rolling stock maintenance EuroMaint Rail Bombardier DSB Vedligehold Midwaggon IBAB Green Cargo Hector Rail TÅGAB CargoNet TX Logistik Mantena Alstom Motala Trains mgw Service Transitio SL SJ NSB DSB TÅGAB Financing Consultancy services Rolling stock reconstruction EuroMaint Rail Motala Trains MiTrans AlphaTrains Mitsui Railpool Hector Rail Green Cargo CargoNet Bombardier DSB Vedligehold Bombardier Alstom Stadler Siemens Ansaldo
A two-step investigation 1. Description of current organisation Ready fall 2013 2. Analysis of how the organisation can be improved Following from additional directives
Directives for step 1 Using a functional description of the railway system to show the division of responsibilities and tasks between different actors Describing the organisational development since 1988, including motifs and explanations of concepts Mapping of relevant EU legislation and the resulting scope for national decision-making Making an inventory of problems and potential areas of improvements
The work so far Bilateral meetings with a large number of stakeholders Participation in conferences Collecting relevant literature Expert group appointed in July Major workshop 23 August Work on structuring and contents of first report
Some observations (1) The stepwise reform process pushed forward by governments regardless of political ideology Many stakeholders (and the literature) point at the positive development resulting from (or happening in parallel to) the reforms: Increased investments in rail infrastructure Strong growth in traffic (in particular regional passenger) Increased specialisation and focus on cost efficiency Reduced need for operating subsidies Innovations, new pricing models
Some observations (2) A number of problems to handle, such as: Coordination and cooperation between different actors The process of path allocation (highlighted by the sudden interest in on-the-track competition Stockholm-Gothenburg) Tendering and management of (for example) track maintenance Access to rolling stock (in particular for passenger services) Routines in occasion of disturbances Charging and other monetary incentives Management and pricing of real estate assets Ticketing systems and sales Responsibility for strategic development EU legislation likely to diminish the scope for national decision-making in the future
Final remarks The current Swedish model appears to have been the template for recent EU policy initiatives (4 th RP), but: The future EU regulatory framework does not really acknowledge all the relevant experience of the Swedish model nor will it facilitate adjustments, tweaking or fine-tuning
Thank you! Contact: gunnar.alexandersson@regeringskansliet.se Committee website: www.sou.gov.se/jarnvagensorg