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European railways
歐洲鐵路
The quest for a Ryanair of rail freight
追求瑞安航空一樣的鐵路系統
The EU wants more goods to be moved by train. Progress is slow
歐盟想要更多的貨物通過鐵路運輸，但進展緩慢。
IN AVIATION the arrival of privately owned lowcost airlines has shaken up the market and sent the traditional flag carriers into retreat.
在航空領域，低成本的私人航空公司的到來攪亂了市場，使傳統的航空運輸業不斷受到擠壓。
But in Europe's railway business there is still little competition in passenger services.
但在歐洲的鐵路客運業務仍缺少競爭。
Even in freight, where there ought to be more scope for rivalry, the market is still dominated by state-owned incumbents.
即使在理應有更多競爭的鐵路貨運，占市場主導地位的仍然是國有企業。
The European Commission's Transport 2050 plan, adopted two years ago, promises to get half of all the continent's mediumdistance goods transport off the roads and on to rail by 2050.
兩年前歐盟委員會通過的交通運輸2050計劃，期望到2050年得到大陸一半的中長途貨物運輸的道路和鐵路。
But although some progress has been made in designating crossborder rail corridors, the plan will not get far unless there is more choice and competition.
雖然在指定的跨境鐵路走廊已取得一些進展，不過該計劃將不會走的太遠，除非有更多的選擇和競爭。
Newer, private railfreight firms complain that their attempts to get into the market are frustrated by the incumbents.
新的私營鐵路貨運公司抱怨說，在他們試圖進入市場時遭到現有公司的阻礙。
Laszlo Horvath, president of CER Hungary, complains that the stateowned giants, which usually own the tracks as well as running trains, turn nasty whenever young private firms like his try to expand.
匈牙利CER主席拉斯洛霍瓦特抱怨說，通常擁有鐵路以及正在運行的列車的國有企業在私人公司想擴大規模時變得令人討厭。
In January the commission launched its fourth railway package, intended to create a single European rail marketclearly the first three were not enough.
由于前三個鐵路包不足以滿足市場需求，今年一月歐盟委員會推出了第四條鐵路包以建立一個統一的歐洲鐵路市場。
It requires the incumbents to separate, financially and operationally, the part of their business that runs trains from the bit that owns and maintains tracks and signals—although they can still belong to the same holding company.
它要求企業在財務和運營上進行分拆，他們業務的一部分，運行列車和維護軌道、信號仍然可以屬于同一控股公司。
If the new rules are vigorously enforced—a big if—Deutsche Bahn will for instance have to be reorganised so that DB Schenker Rail, its freight company shares no operations or cashflows with DB Netz, which owns most of the German rail network.
如果大力執行這個新規則，將德國聯邦鐵路公司進行重組，因此，DB辛克鐵路的貨運公司與擁有大部分的德國鐵路網絡的DB Netz公司沒有業務合作和資金共享。
That should offer more of a chance to firms like Advanced World Transport in Prague.
這應該向布拉格的世界先進交通運輸這樣的企業提供更多機會。
We want to be the Ryanair of rail freight, says Pierre Timmermans, its boss.
我們希望成為瑞安鐵路貨運老板皮埃爾·蒂默曼說。
AWT is a privatised company that grew out of OKD, a state firm which ran coal and steel trucks from the mines of Moravia. Now it is central Europe's biggest private operator, with around 160 locomotives and 5,500 wagons.
AWT是從OKD分離出的私有化公司，OKD是從摩拉維亞礦山運輸煤炭和鋼鐵的國有企業。現在它是歐洲中部最大的私人運營商，擁有約160臺機車和5500輛貨車。
It plans to expand its operating radius to take it to most European ports.
它計劃擴大其業務范圍到歐洲的大部分港口。
But AWT, like all freight operators, faces obstacles at every national border.
但是像所有的貨運經營者，AWT在許多國家的邊境也面臨障礙。
Apart from the state incumbents' lack of clarity about fees for access to their tracks, these include different safety rules, signalling systems and voltage, and differences in gauges.
除了缺乏進入這些國有企業路網所需要的明晰費用，還包括不同的安全規則，信號系統和電壓，壓力表差異。
A haul from Ljubljana to Istanbul involves five countries and eight changes of locomotive according to a 2010 study for the European Commission.
根據歐盟委員會2010年的研究從盧布爾雅到伊斯坦布爾的1577km涉及5個國家和更換8個機車。
Few drivers are licensed for more than one country.
很少有司機有其他國家的駕駛執照。
Multi-system locomotives are expensive, costing up to 4m, making it hard for any firm other than subsidised operators to afford them.
能夠使用多系統的機車很昂貴，耗資高達4百萬歐元，沒有補貼的運營商沒有能力支付這個費用。
Each of the commission's proposed rail corridors will be managed by a secretariat whose job will be to reduce paperwork and offer operators a one-stop shop to seek permission to run a train.
歐盟委員會建議的各條鐵路線將通過秘書處管理，其工作將是減少文書工作，并提供運營商所尋求的運行列車的一站式管理。
Six of the corridors are supposed to be in operation by November, but are running late.
6條線應該是在11月運作，但推遲了。
Corridor 1, from Rotterdam to Genoa, runs smoothly from the Dutch port to the German border after 4.7 billion of improvements to tracks and signals.
鐵路線1是從鹿特丹到熱那亞，在花費47億歐元改善軌道和信號系統后順利從荷蘭港口運行到德國邊境。
But Germany, having spent heavily on its own signalling standards, is reluctant to upgrade its signals again to the latest pan-European standard, called ERTMS.
但是德國已在自己的信號標準上花費了巨資，是不愿意將信號再次升級到最新的稱為ERTMS的泛歐標準。
Only recently has its government agreed to contribute 746m to upgrade a 73km stretch inside its territory.
直到最近德國政府才同意出資7.46億歐元升級其領土內73公里線路。
Other corridors are even further behind.
其他線路則進展緩慢。
Corridor 6 is expected to cost almost 80 billion to upgrade,
線路6預計將耗資近800億歐元進行升級，
but given the dire finances of the five countries it passes through—Spain, France, Italy, Slovenia and Hungary—that money is not going to be forthcoming for a long time.
但考慮到其沿線五國西班牙，法國，意大利，斯洛文尼亞和匈牙利嚴峻的財政狀況，在以后的很長一段時間內資金都會很緊張。
Closer to reality is a separate experiment called Retrack, initially sponsored by the EU, to encourage a clutch of private companies and consultants to develop a freight route from Rotterdam to Hungary and beyond.
更接近現實的是最初由歐盟資助的另一項稱為Retrack的實驗，鼓勵私營公司和咨詢公司制定從鹿特丹到匈牙利或更遠的貨運航線。
It got off to a shaky start but Transpetrol, a rail-freight firm based in Hamburg, now runs up to five trains a week in co-operation with CER Hungary and LTE of Austria, another private firm—and it makes a profit.
在開始階段反復不定，但總部設在德國漢堡的鐵路貨運公司Transpetrol，現在每周與匈牙利CER和奧地利的另一家私人公司LTE合作運行每周多達5趟列車并且處于盈利狀態。
The trick seems to be flexibility in putting together trainloads from small groups of wagons, well-timed leasing of locomotives and rolling-stock, and negotiating good access rates.
訣竅似乎是將分散的少量運載車一起運輸，及時租賃機車和車廂，提高周轉率和談判的靈活性。
Transpetrol says it has also persuaded customers that they will not suffer any repercussions from the state-owned competition.
TRANSPETROL說，他們已承諾客戶不會受到國有企業的影響。
Until competition is more open, private challengers will be on an uphill gradient.
隨著競爭更加開放，私人企業將面臨越來越激烈的競爭。
The future may be that Europe ends up with four dominant incumbents and a few agile smaller ones from the private sector says Tom Zunder at Newcastle University.
湯姆真德在紐卡斯大學說未來在歐洲貨運鐵路系統很可能是有四家競爭力較強的企業和一些私人擁有的靈活的小企業。
One of the big four will undoubtedly be DB Schenker Rail.
DB辛克鐵路公司無疑將是四大企業之一。
It has subsidiaries in Britain, France, Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria.
它在英國，法國，波蘭，匈牙利和保加利亞設有子公司。
It runs a daily freight service to China and in September it will begin a service three times a week to Istanbul.
它每天為中國提供貨運服務，并將于9月將開始每周三次為伊斯坦布爾提供貨運服務。
Even private-sector challengers acknowledge it is well-run.
即使是私營企業的挑戰者也承認它運行良好。
Few question the virtue of getting more goods onto rail, but efforts to do so have been mixed.
為鐵路爭取更多的貨物面臨幾個問題，所做努力的結果也是喜憂參半。
EU auditors recently recommended pulling the plug on another project, Marco Polo, in which large sums have been spent on tracks and terminals with not much improvement to show for it.
最近歐盟的審計師建議另一個已花費大筆資金改造線路和站點卻仍沒有多大改善的馬可波羅項目。
The biggest obstacle is that road transport is so efficient and flexible: Even this afternoon I could probably get something shipped to Sofia by truck, says Mr Zunder.
最大的障礙是公路運輸高效和靈活。真德先生說：即使今天下午，我大概還可以得到由卡車從索非亞運來的東西。
In contrast rail-freight routes can still take up to 18 months to plan.
相比之下，鐵路貨運有長達18個月的貨運計劃。
Even once the EU has all its corridors in operation, it will struggle to get half of all cargo on the rails.
歐盟甚至一度使其所有線路處于運營狀態，它將爭取把一半的公路運輸轉移到鐵路上來。
