Lineas, one of the largest private rail freight operators in Europe, has published a memorandum with five “actions” to increase competition with state-owned entities. In the document, the Belgian company highlighted the various issues that the sector is facing, especially those players that enjoy less public financial support.
“State-owned competitors continue to benefit from important illegal state aid (…) and oriented public subsidies which hugely distort competition in the European market”, the company said. Other than an imbalance between private and state-owned companies, Lineas stressed that the road sector also enjoys significant higher subsidies than rail freight, further complicating the situation.
Action 1: better subsidy allocation
The first action proposed by Lineas specifically concerns state aid, as they are asking the Federal Government to make sure that illegal state aid is stopped. Moreover, the company claims that “country-specific subsidies” should not be focussed on state-owned entities, such as the ones for single wagonload in Germany. Finally, the first action would include monitoring that the restructuring plans which some state-owned companies are undergoing are “proportionate and efficient”.
Action 2: ‘You can use mine if I can use yours’
The second action would entail a change in the current regulatory framework concerning the use of the Antwerp shunting hill by companies from all over Europe. “While they have full access on Belgian sites, German and French State-owned companies keep exclusivity to similar facilities in their country (shunting yards) giving them monopoly on some traffic”, the document said. Lineas is thus asking the Belgian government to require the same access scheme to all essential facilities in Europe and to apply the same principles as neighbouring countries.
Action 3: use road money to fund rail freight
The third point raised by Lineas concerns the disparity in public financial support between road and rail freight. “Support to rail freight is almost nonexistant while rail freight companies are obliged to install new expensive safety equipment on their locomotives”, the company pointed out. The first measure to improve the situation, according to Lineas, would be “to extend the current Track Access Charge reduction scheme beyond 2025”.
Moreover, the Belgian government should decrease the funds allocated to the road sector in favour of rail freight. More specifically, these funds should be used to plan safety projects such as the ERTMS deployment, with “a pragmatic phase out plan for the current safety systems in function of a realistic upgrade deadline for all the locomotives”. Finally, regional governments in Belgium should also get involved by establishing training centres similar to the ones in place for truck drivers and shipping crews.
Actions 4 and 5: new operational regulations
With the last two actions, Lineas is also asking the Federal government to implement Infrabel’s Multi-Year investment plan for the 2023-2032 period. Moreover, the priority rules for capacity allocation, which often favour passenger services need to be optimised. Additionally, the Federal Government, the National Safety Authority and Infrabel should “harmonise and simplify local operating rules, in particular for port areas”.
Lastly, the company is suggesting that regional governments in the country should “support innovative financing models and quick solutions for key bottlenecks in ports, industrial and logistic zones”. They should also facilitate road transport companies to choose multimodal services “by compensating transshipment costs to/from rail”.