On June 7th, Forum Train Europe members came together for FTE’s Plenary Assembly in Krakow, Poland. The Assembly elected four new members of the FTE Executive Board (ExBo). The mandate and the mission of the new ExBo will be crucial since it will lead the FTE organisation during the revision of the EU law for capacity management (Greening Transport Package) and the first year of TTR hybrid implementation. We are bringing you short interviews with the all-new ExBo members, so that you can get know them better, understand their visions, and hear about the topics to which they would like to dedicate their attention.
This time we talked to Philipp Mäder, the newly elected FTE president. Philipp Mäder is Director of International Passenger Services and member of the Management Board Passenger Services Markets at Swiss Federal Railways SBB. Philipp also serves as chairman of the Board of Directors of another FTE member, Lyria SAS.
The Plenary Assembly is over now, and you will travel back to focus on your main responsibilities within SBB. Can you give us an idea of what tasks and challenges are currently on your table?
My team and I are responsible for the management of SBB’s international passenger services, i.e., our cross-border long-distance day and night trains. We coordinate the cooperations with our partner railways as well as we design the further development of international distribution and customer orientation. We set strategic goals for cross-border transport and the incoming travel business and are responsible for the strategic management of our subsidiaries Lyria, Rheinalp, Swiss Travel System and Switzerland Travel Centre. Our main goal is to connect Switzerland with numerous European destinations (and the other way around) and to increase passenger rail’s international market share.
What are the topics in the area of capacity management that you think the FTE community should focus on in the upcoming years?
Our main aim is to make the processes to plan the use of the capacity on rail more market oriented. In short, earlier, and more reliable planning is needed for passenger traffic, and more flexible planning for freight traffic. We will continue to push European harmonisation of processes and the usability of IT. European Infrastructure Managers should cooperate more closely and act “as if they were one”. This helps to improve the service for passengers and freight customers. Our focus therefore is certainly the revision of the EU legislation on capacity management, which we will accompany closely and constructively. Here we need the assistance of the members because only with broad-based support we can make our voices heard. So let us work together to make the planning of cross-border traffic easier, digitalised, more flexible, and harmonised European-wide.
Some stakeholders say that passenger and freight members have different and conflicting interests. However, FTE membership and the FTE executive board contain both freight and passenger. How do you think the FTE community can cope with that and would it be possible to find a balance?
We should build on the common interests and shared goals of freight and passenger traffic to further strengthen the railway system. If infrastructure capacity is managed better and we can improve efficiency and effectiveness all market players will profit. And yes, I absolutely believe that we can and must find that balance to have a strong, market-oriented position. United we are powerful.
The level of involvement of FTE members is quite varied, with some being active in groups and others joining only for the conferences. What can be done to motivate the less active members to join the table and work on future solutions?
It is normal that some FTE members have more resources to be active. On the other hand, we see FTE as an important platform for joint development and co-design, therefore we encourage every member to join the table to shape the future. We can also learn a lot from each other and use synergies.
Lastly, is there any specific message you would like to give to the staff of FTE members?
I would like to thank everybody for her and his valuable work in the past and future. Even if we might be competitors in daily operations, we should put this aside within FTE and work together to make international rail transport more competitive. I’m looking forward to it!