CELEX: 51983PC0404
Language: en
Date: 1983-07-01
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL RECOMMENDATION TO THE NATIONAL RAILWAY COMPANIES OF THE MEMBER STATES ON STRENGTHENING THEIR COOPERATION IN THE COMMERCIAL MANAGEMENT OF INTERNATIONAL PASSENGERS AND GOODS TRANSPORT BY RAIL

No C 191/10                         Official Journal of the European Communities                              16.7.83
                                                            II
                                                     (Preparatory Acts)
                                               COMMISSION
              Proposal for a Council recommendation to the national railway companies of the
             Member States on strengthening their cooperation in the commercial management of
                                   international passenger and goods transport by rail
                              (Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 5 July 1983)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN                                      takings shall enjoy commercial independence in the
COMMUNITIES,                                                     management of international passenger and luggage
                                                                 traffic. This independence shall be used in particular
                                                                 for intensifying their cooperation in order to pursue
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the                     common objectives and shall not prejudice their
European Economic Community, and in particular                   obligations as a public service';
Article 75 thereof,
                                                                Whereas international transport is becoming increa-
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,              singly important for the railways, and it is desirable
                                                                that they strengthen their position on the various
                                                                international markets;
Having regard to the opinion of the              European
Parliament,
                                                                Whereas efforts have been made by the railways and
                                                                structures have been established with a view to
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and                promoting a more effective commercial policy and it
Social Committee,                                               is important to complement these achievements by
                                                                greater cooperation in commercial management,
Having regard to the Council resolution of 15
December 1981 (x) on Community railway policy,                  HEREBY RECOMMENDS:
which stressed the need to encourage international
cooperation between railways in the commercial field,
                                                                                         Article 1
Whereas Council Decision 82/529/EEC of 19 July                                      General objectives
1982 on the fixing of rates for the international                1.    The strengthening of cooperation between the
carriage of goods by rail (2) stipulates in Article 5 that      railway companies of the Community in the
'The railway undertakings shall have the commercial             commercial management of international passenger
independence     necessary for        intensifying   their      and goods transport by rail should have as its
cooperation in the quotation of transport rates and             objective the development of international rail traffic
conditions for international transport in order to              and an increase in the market share held by the
pursue common objectives, in particular as regards              railways. More particularly, cooperation should make
the creation of revenue pools and the delegation of             it possible to overcome the fragmentation of the
powers between railway undertakings for the                     supply of railway services as a result of the co-
conclusion of special agreements with customers';               existence on the market of several national under-
                                                                takings, and to broaden the international dimension
                                                                of rail traffic, in particular on the main continental
Whereas Council Decision 83/. . ./EEC of
                                                                routes.
1983 on the commercial independence of the railways
in the management of their international passenger
and luggage traffic stipulates in Article 2 that Tn             2.     To this end, it is necessary to improve
accordance with this Decision, the railway under-               cooperation by adopting and implementing new instru-
                                                                ments and procedures based on the common interests
(') OJ NoC 157, 22. 6. 1982, p. 1.                              of the railway companies, together with a strategy
O OJ No L 234, 9. 8. 1982, p. 5.                                designed to ensure that the railway companies present
 ---pagebreak---  16.7.83                              Official Journal of the European Communities                           NoC191/ll
 themselves on the international transport market as a            with a view, in particular, to establishing bilateral or
 single carrier and assess the profitability of the               multilateral through tariffs separate from the domestic
 services to be offered to their customers in relation to         systems.
 the aggregate costs and revenue in respect of the
 traffic links concerned.
                                                                  2.    The establishment, on a bilateral or multilateral
                                                                 basis, of international groups for specific markets
                           Article 2                             should also make it possible to simplify the operations
                                                                 involved in the calculation of rates, and thus permit
                         Marketing
                                                                 greater transparency of tariffs for customers, and faci-
 1.     In order to attain the objectives referred to in         litate the conclusion of special agreements taking into
Article 1, the railway companies should make wider               account the specific features of certain traffic flows or
use of joint analyses and studies of the international           the particular situation of certain customers.
passenger and goods transport market and joint
analysis of the specific requirements of customers, in
qualitative and quantitative terms, with a view to               3.     In order to ensure flexibility and rapidity of
bringing the quality of, and the various forms of,               decision-making, it is also important that the railway
international rail services into line with the market            companies should strengthen and make wider use of
requirements on the traffic links concerned.                     the delegation of powers procedure in order to enable
                                                                vendors of international services to negotiate and
                                                                 rapidly conclude special agreements on behalf of all
2.     Similarly, the railway companies should provide           the railway companies concerned.
a greater impetus towards the joint organization of
sales forces and the joint monitoring of results.
                                                                 4.    Inter-company cooperation on information
                                                                should make it possible to remove the fears of
3.     To this end, the railway companies should move           vendors of international railway services and more
beyond the present stage of cooperation and, where              particularly to tackle and resolve the problems facing
necessary, provide appropriate instruments in the               consignors and consignees established in different
form of bilateral or multilateral inter-network teams           countries; this could be given shape by means of
whose tasks would include:                                      better organization of the railway companies' general
                                                                agencies, or the establishment at the border of joint
— analyzing the special features of the markets in              marketing or technical agencies.
     question and the competitive situation of the
     railways as compared with the other modes of
     transport,                                                 5.     To ensure that inter-company cooperation
                                                                concerning tariffs produces concrete results, it is also
— creating an organizational structure suitable for             important that the rules concerning the sharing-out of
     the pattern of services to be supplied,                    revenue between companies should be improved and
                                                                that, where possible, revenue pools or other new
                                                                systems of sharing out revenue should be established
— progressively implementing medium-term and                    with a view to overcoming the handicap constituted
     long-term business plans based on the common               by the differing degrees of interest which the
     interest of the railway networks, initially by             companies concerned may have in certain categories
     groups of routes on a bilateral — and sub-                 of traffic.
     sequently on a multilateral — basis,
— developing sales strategies specifically geared to                                     Article 4
     international traffic.
                                                                                 Exchange of information
                                                                 1.    Action based on the concept of common interest
                          Article 3
                                                                presupposes better mutual information               among
                 Sales and transport rates                      companies concerning the priority to be given to
                                                                certain types of traffic in view of their profitability
1.     More active cooperation concerning the                   and the cost situation with regard to the traffic
exploration of the market and the selling of transport          concerned.
services should be accompanied by differentiation,
and, if possible, simplification of the rates offered.
                                                                2.     Better information should help to improve
As part of the independence granted by Council                  productivity as a result of exercising greater selectivity
Decisions 82/529/EEC and 83/. . ./EEC, the railway              in terms of the quality and quantity of services and
companies should pursue and generalize their efforts            concentrating on profitable services.
 ---pagebreak--- No C 191/12                            Official Journal of the European Communities                           16.7.83
3.    The joint storage of data and the establishment              what progress has been made following this
of harmonized procedures for the distribution and                  recommendation in its reports on the execution of
circulation of basic information are implicit in such               Decision 82/529/EEC and 8 3 / . . ./EEC.
action.
                                                                                        Article 6
                         Article 5
                                                                   This recommendation is addressed to the railway
The railway companies shall send the Commission the                 companies of the Member States, which are listed in
information necessary for the Commission to state                  the Annex hereto.
                     BILAG /ANHANGIIIAPAPTHMA            / ANNEX I ANNEXE IALLEGA TO IBIJLAGE
             Jernbanevirksomheder / Eisenbahnen / £i5t|poSpO(iiKd Sixtua / Railway companies / Entreprises de
                                        chemins de fer / Reti ferroviarie / Spoorwegen
             — Societe nationale des chemins de fer beiges (SNCB) / Nationale Maatschappij der Belgische
                 Spoorwegen (NMBS)
                 Rue de France 85, B-1070 Bruxelles
                 Frankrijkstraat 85, B-1070 Brussel
             — Danske Statsbaner (DSB)
                 Selvgade 40, DK-K0benhavn
             — Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB)
                 Friedrich-Ebert-Anlage 43, D-6000 Frankfurt (Main)
             — Opyavtonoi; Ii5T|po5p6u<ov EM.&5o<; AE (OZE)
                 o86g Kapoks 1, GR-A0f]vai
             — Societe nationale des chemins de fer francais (SNCF)
                 Rue Saint Lazare 88, F-75436 Paris
             — Coras Iompair Eireann (CIE)
                 Heuston Station, IRL-Dublin 8
             — Azienda autonoma delle ferrovie dello Stato (FS)
                 Piazza della Croce Rossa, I-Roma
             — Societe nationale des chemins de fer luxembourgeois (CFL)
                 Place de la Gare 9, L-Luxembourg
             — Naamloze Vennootschap Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS)
                 Moreelse park 1, NL-3500 HA Utrecht
             — British Railways Board (BRB)
                 Euston Square, UK-London NW1 2DZ
             — Northern Ireland Railways Company Ltd (NIR)
                 East Bridge Street, UK-Belfast BTl 3PB.