Results — International Conference OSJD

Results

Recommendations
of the VIII OSJD International Conference on Rail Freight

The representatives of railways of the countries in the Eurasian space – the Republic of Hungary, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Republic of Moldova, the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania, the Republic of Poland, the Russian Federation, the Czech Republic, Ukraine and the Republic of Estonia, international organizations – the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the Intergovernmental Organization for International Carriage by Rail (OTIF), the Organization for Cooperation of Railways (OSJD), the International Rail Transport Committee (CIT), the International Union of Railways (UIC), the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine, the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania, the affiliated enterprises of OSJD, the International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations (FIATA), national freight forwarders and logistics associations of Singapore and Ukraine, railway undertakings, freight forwarding and logistics companies from Austria, Byelorussia, Germany, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Russia and Ukraine, that took part in the VIII OSJD International Conference on Rail Freight,

   recognizing an important role of rail transport in achieving sustainable economic and social development of Asia and Europe,

   taking into account that the rail transport is a single transport mode which does not have a unified legal framework, as distinct from road, water and air transport,

   realizing that administrative and legal barriers are significant obstacles to development of Eurasian rail freight,

   following the aim to support multilateral cooperation between all participants in the transportation process and strengthen cooperation in the field of rail freight,

address the railways and concerned international organizations with the following recommendations:

   - to give a positive assessment of the joint work of OSJD and CIT on creation and implementation of the unified consignment note CIM/SMGS in Eurasian rail freight traffic as well as other documents, which enable to transport goods without retranscription of carriage documents at the reconsignment point;

   - to strengthen further cooperation between OSJD railwas, carriers and freight forwarding companies on the basis of mutual partnership responsibilities with a view to provide qualitative and competitive services to customers, use railway capacities and find coordinated approaches for solving common problems;

   - to focus efforts on raising quality of transport services according to the principle “single window” that includes not only goods transportation by different transport modes but also customs clearance, storage and other services;

   - marketing strategy of railways should be focused on cooperation with other transport modes, meet the requirements of customers in order to increase competitiveness of rail transport, i.e. delivery time reduction, creation of logistics centers, improvement of work at the stations (especially at the border crossing and port stations);

   - taking into account the importance of competitiveness of railways in comparison with other transport modes it is necessary to continue works on creation of new types of “railway products” in particular by organizing container block trains including combined transportations in international traffic in accordance with international standards for commercial, technological and operational characteristics;

   - the interested participants of transportation process should study the problem on organization of international goods transportation of small consignments;

   - in the course of restructuring the railway sector and establishing new transport companies (carriers, forwarding companies and others) some countries should make a point of the issues concerning performance of goods transportation in international traffic with a view to preserve continuity of established relations on commerce and technological issues.
As a result of liberalization of rail transport in EU countries a lot of new railway undertakings and transport companies were established. It results a new situation connected with competitiveness within the railway sphere. In this regard it is necessary to determine relationship with the above-mentioned companies as partners within the framework of international rail freight traffic;

   - it is necessary to mention the growing impact of globalization on international rail freight traffic. Freight potential of China and the countries of Southeast Asia has grown significantly. Furthermore the landlocked regions of Caucasus, Central Asia and Western China are considered as perspective market for international rail freight traffic between Asia and Europe. In this regard it is necessary to continue planning and organizing container block trains.

The delegates gave a positive assessment to the accumulated experience concerning:
   - creation of new types of “transport products” – container block trains and trains of combined transport, e.g. “ZUBR”, “VIKING”, “NEW SILK ROAD” and others;
   - coordinated works being carried out by railways on further development of partnership relations between railway undertakings, carriers, operators, forwarders and customs authorities.;
   - organization by the railways of Byelorussia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Estonia of regular running of the trains “BALTIKA-TRANZIT”, “VOSTOCHNYY VETER”, “KAZAKHSTANKIY VEKTOR” and others (container and piggy-back transportation).

The delegates marked the importance of:
   - opening the new Black Sea rail-ferry connections as well as improvement of work of existing ferry crossings between Bulgaria, Georgia, Russia and Ukraine and their advantages based on a through route without additional transshipment.
In order to upgrade efficiency of rail-ferry traffic a possibility shall be considered to use in this field the common consignment note CIM/SMGS;
   - providing updated information and using advertizing tools for rail customers as well mutual information exchange on freight services including container and combined transportations;
   - using modern IT systems in freight traffic and harmonizing IT systems of railway undertakings, customers and correspondent authorities. In this regard it is necessary to extend information services for customers using Internet.

The delegates also underlined that the Programme on Cooperation between OSJD and UIC for 2010-2015 (signed in March 2010), which includes many important issues concerning freight transport (harmonization of nomenclatures of goods and coding systems, increase of interoperability of rail transport and improvement of its competitiveness and others) proves the importance of cooperation with international organizations.

The delegates consider reasonable to held conferences and seminars on freight transport issues with a view to exchange experiences and discuss problems on further development and organization of freight traffic in Europe-Asia-Europe direction involving international organizations, railway undertakings, transport companies, consignors, operators and freight forwarding companies.