CONFÉRENCE EUROPÉENNE DES MINISTRES DES TRANSPORTS
EUROPEAN CONFERENCE OF MINISTERS OF TRANSPORTCOMPREHENSIVE RESOLUTION No. 23 ON SHORT-TERM MEASURESTO IMPROVE INTERNATIONAL RAIL SERVICES[CM(85)4 Final]

The Council of Ministers of Transport, meeting in Rome on 29th and 30th May 1985,

HAVING REGARD TO:-- Reports CM(83)6 and CM(84)9 on commercial action relevant to rail traffic in the passenger
and freight sector;-- Reports CM(84)10 and CM(84)29 on ways in which international passenger and freighttransport by rail might be improved;

CONSIDERING THAT:-- European railways are at present in a particularly difficult competitive situation which could
become almost desperate unless vigorous action is taken immediately;-- While some railways have achieved technological and commercial successes in a few market
slots where rail has undeniable advantages, it would be a mistake to set too much store byprogress that is limited to particular sectors;-- The European railways’ overall share of the international transport market for both passenger
and freight traffic has been diminishing continuously;-- The reasons for this decline are known and have been analysed at length in the four reports
referred to above;-- The railways are by and large victims of their own past development, since in Europe they
are from 100 to 150 years old and were clearly marked in the 19th and 20th centuries withnational characteristics from the geographical, technical and legal standpoints, their roleending at the frontiers of each country;-- The railways are, moreover, particularly sensitive to the structural changes taking place in theEuropean economies;-- The measures taken by the public authorities, usually prompted by consideration of nationalinterest, may have hampered international action by the railways, a fact that has led to manytechnical incompatibilities between railways and differences in structure and organisation. Asa general rule the immediate financial interest of each railway has taken precedence over theircommon interest, resulting among other things in difficulties of communication between railauthorities in the different countries;

-- There are, moreover, two characteristics of the operation of railway undertakings which have
major implications for their management:•The survival of the undertaking is in any event ensured by the public purse;•Financial incentives are inadequate;-- These difficulties are aggravated in the case of international traffic by a lack of co-operation
between the railways themselves and by an unduly passive attitude with respect to suchtraffic;-- The growing indebtedness of the railways and the financial burden that national authorities
assume to ensure their operation may very well soon become intolerable.

BELIEVES that the need now is for deeds rather than words;

EMPHASIZES that the revival of international rail traffic calls for parallel and concomitant action byboth the railways and governments, since the common resolve of the railways to improve thesituation in this connection is a necessary but insufficient condition for success and the clear-cut
political will of governments will also be decisive;

ACCORDINGLY MAKES THE FOLLOWING RECOMMENDATIONS:
A. Measures relevant to the railways
In order to improve the situation as regards international rail traffic, railway policy should be
shaped with a view to:-- Promoting the common interest whenever possible rather than the interests of each individualrailway;-- Selecting transport market slots that are particularly suitable insofar as they make use of
rail’s specific advantages: long-distance bulk and heavy products traffic in the freight sector,
and passenger traffic on links where the potential volume of traffic is high and rail iscompetitive with the airlines;-- Contributing to the improvement of the environment by developing combined transport
throughout Europe, and especially the piggyback system, so as to reduce the disamenities
caused by road transport, particularly in countries with heavy transit traffic;-- Improving the quality of services offered, paying particular attention to the competitive
situation vis-à-vis other modes and the wishes expressed by customers;-- Keeping tight control of costs in developing traffic so as to ensure that, other than in the caseof selective promotional measures, only profitable traffic is in fact carried;-- Stepping up as quickly as possible the international co-operation among the railways which
are most interested and best equipped, so that such co-operation may lead to a gradualprocess of integration.
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With a view to achieving these objectives, the railway authorities should adopt the following
methodological bases:-- Think in terms of profitability over the total length of the journey instead of having eachrailway assess the situation solely from the standpoint of the part of the journey on its
national territory;-- Harmonize methods of calculating costs, a pre-requisite to the harmonization of tariffstructures;-- Select the most appropriate criteria for routing international traffic;-- Adopt common methods, not only for settling railway accounts but also for sharing theadvantages and sacrifices;-- Act as a single operator towards customers, assuming responsibility for the transportoperation from the point of departure to the destination;-- Handle the transport operation as a whole, incorporating allied services as the customer
wishes, insofar as warranted from a commercial standpoint;-- Harmonize methods of obtaining information about the market by adopting a common
approach to market research and marketing;-- Assign to marketing the role it deserves in business strategy so as to ensure that technical andcommercial requirements are evenly balanced;-- Separate international traffic from domestic traffic by reviewing the network of passenger
trains and freight routing plans and by simplifying or, where appropriate, unifying the tariffsystem;-- Take more vigorous measures to resolve the difficulties caused by technical incompatibilities
between railways as regards:. Type of electric current,. Track gauge,. Signalling systems,. Braking systems,. Running speed,. Loading gauge,. Axle weight,. Technical norms for wagons, etc.;-- Ensure the optimum utilisation of available capacities, exploiting the possibilities offered bycombined transport in particular;-- Improve the infrastructure of heavy traffic lines and eliminate bottlenecks where feasible ineconomic terms;

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-- Reduce journey times by eliminating “unnecessary” stops for passenger trains andintroducing more through trains for freight, raising maximum speeds, reducing delays at
frontiers by appropriate measures relevant to rail operations, such as the use of multi-system
locomotives, the reorganisation of marshalling operations and broader use of the so-called“trust” scheme for wagons.

B. Recommendations to governments:
It is essentially for governments to:a) Take the railways international services towards integration, the sole means of ensuring thecommunity of aims and methods prerequisite to effective international co-operation;b) Clarify their financial relations with the railways, where this has not already been done, by
laying down precise rules for the compensation of public service obligations and thenormalization of accounts so as to enable the railways to assume sole responsibility for
managing their own business;c) Respect the right of the railways to self-management, where this already exists, and grant
them this right in cases where this has not as yet been done;d) Seek effective harmonization of the terms of competition;e) Eliminate external obstacles to the smooth flow of rail traffic, particularly where frontier
crossings are concerned;f) Establish, if necessary, the appropriate conditions to enable the railways to carry out theinvestment projects required in order to operate properly;

AGREES:
1. To draw the attention of the government of all ECMT Member countries to the urgency ofthe decisions to be taken;
2. To communicate this Resolution to the railways authorities of those countries, inviting themto give immediate consideration to the recommendations and report by 31st December 1986
on the measures taken;

INSTRUCTS the Committee of Deputies to keep informed of the action taken to implement thisResolution and report in two years’ time on the progress made.

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