Blog
Competition and excellence as keystones for the success of regional passenger rail
Dr. Erich Forster
5 July 2017
Erich, CEO of open access operator WESTbahn, spoke at the 4th International Railway Summit in Paris of the vital importance of competition and excellence in meeting customer needs and enabling regional passenger rail to thrive
The European Commission prepared a sophisticated roadmap to more competition in the rail sector with “The White Paper on a Single European Transport Area” in 2011, knowing that only more competition guarantees more excellence in regional passenger rail. Because of the legislative process of the 4th Railway Package sufficient compromises were made since member state politicians and CER (representing incumbents) concentrated on prolonged possibilities for direct awards.
Nevertheless, long lasting direct awards do not support quality and excellence. There is no need to push towards higher quality goals if everything is agreed upon in advance without competition.
The clue to quality improvements in regional traffic is competition – as proven in several other industries.
Example: Austria, with WESTbahn as the only competitor in long distance passenger rail traffic:
100% of PSO contracts in the past were direct awards and currently there appear no signs of change in the attitude towards competitive tenders.
WESTbahn started in December 2011 an hourly service between Vienna Westbahnhof and Salzburg. 5 years later, from December 2017, WESTbahn will more than double its fleet and start a second line between Vienna Main Station and Salzburg – the first private half hourly tact system (competing with a state railway) in Europe.
Steady increasing train-kilometer and passenger volumes, 99.9% train availability, 95.2% punctuality (2016) and perfect personal service on board (up to 8 stewards per train in peak hours) mark WESTbahn out as a top-quality provider. Annual customer satisfaction surveys show that customers are very satisfied with WESTbahn’s service and this USP will be transferred to WESTbahn’s new line and hopefully soon to regional traffic, for which WESTbahn is impatiently waiting to get the chance to show its excellence.
WESTbahn has repeatedly demonstrated two major skills – the ability to compete with an incumbent of multiple size who receives subsidies for 80% of its services and the expertise to rank first within the travellers´ relevant set due to highly focused customer orientation.
Quality improvement in regional traffic can happen easily and fast once Austria decides to start tendering in rail regional PSO’s.
WESTbahn is eager to prove its competence and success also in regional traffic with a new approach:
- WESTbahn has an extremely lean and cheap overhead
- All funds only for customer related elements
- Crew on board stands for service, safety and satisfaction
- New production and train redundancy efficiently secures lower costs
Category: Blog passenger rail
Tags: passenger rail railway transport
About the author
Dr. Erich Forster, born on the 24th of February 1957 in Vienna, did his PhD in Psychology in the year 1983 at the University of Vienna.
Since May 2012 Dr. Forster is CEO of WESTbahn Management GmbH and since February 2014 also CEO of the Mother Company Rail Holding AG. April 2011 to May 2012 he was Chief Commercial Officer of WESTbahn.
Dr. Forster started his professional career at the Austrian federal railway (ÖBB) and has filled executive functions since 1995 – in the last years as managing director of long distance traffic. Additionally, he was CEO of the service subsidiary company of ÖBB, “DB Gastservice”, from 1996 to 2011, and in supervisory board functions, eg. Rail Tours Austria. Furthermore, in the 1980´s and 1990´s he undertook leading international project development functions within UIC – eg. Euro City group or general manager for international night traffic.