Forum Train Europe was invited to an international round table on night trains, held by Masaryk University on Friday the 21st of April in Brno, Czechia. Four FTE members: Czech Railways (ČD P), Austrian Railways (OBB PV), Wagon Service, and Slovakian Railways (ZSSK) were in attendance, along with members of the academic community. During the conference, many aspects of the night train business were examined, with FTE contributing a discussion of night trains from the capacity management point of view.
Current timetabling processes pose many risks to FTE members. Namely, railway undertakings cannot be guaranteed protection from limited access to infrastructure, infeasible timetables, undesirable/uncompetitive timetables, interrupted running days, and high costs in case of cancellations out of the RU control. These factors make strategic business planning for the future difficult and ultimately lead to losses for both passenger and freight railways. As a relatively small and newly reviving segment within the rail industry, night trains are especially vulnerable to many of these process-related risks.
In addition to inadequate timetabling processes, temporary capacity restrictions (TCRs) caused by scheduled or unscheduled maintenance works are one of the biggest hindrances that FTE members face to providing efficient, consistent, high-quality, and profitable railway service. Current frameworks for categorizing and handling TCRs in Annex VII (EU 2017/2075) are not of high value to railway undertakings as a solution. For instance, a night maintenance window of 4 hours can have a significant impact on the service feasibility (breakeven point), but since it might lead to the cancellation of less than 10% of trains/day, the legislation does not require to inform RUs in advance, they get this information only when is too late, business case defined, timetables prepared, no alteranative resource deployment feasible. The frequency and unpredictability of TCRs in Europe cause delays and reduced running days, which will ultimately have an impact on customer satisfaction and profitability since fixed costs cannot be spread to as many operation days and anticipated.
Antiquated timetabling processes, combined with the ever-present problems created by TCRs, means early ticket sales are not possible for railways. Air and bus transport operators (which night trains especially are in competition with) are able to start ticket sales many months further in advance. This has an effect on the attractiveness of rail, for example, rail tickets for the crucial Christmas and in some regions for summer travel periods can generally only be sold 1-2 months in advance, whereas other modes can sell tickets as early as 5-11 months in advance.
The stability of service is another crucial issue for FTE members, including for night train operators. Night train rolling stock represents a massive investment for a railway undertaking, and thus recouping the investment requires many years of service. However, there is no guarantee from infrastructure managers that the given route will still be available this far in the future. It could be that within 2 to 3 years the line will be closed, and the operator will be left with expensive rolling stock and no way to make money from it. This is especially risky for night train operators, as night train rolling stock cannot be easily reallocated to other routes. This unstable business environment affects all types of railway operators and generates a considerable reluctance to enter new markets such as night service and to realise investments. Firm multiannual capacity commitments will be essential moving forward in order to address these problems, the exact vision is to be defined only by the sector players.
Other participants at the round table presented their outlooks and findings about the night train business. FTE member OBB Personenverkehr detailed many of the obstacles they face as the largest night train operator in Europe, all of which challenge profitability. Other presenters touched on the state of night trains in places like France and Central and Eastern Europe, and the opportunities for future growth, along with the associated challenges.
FTE members, whether operating passenger, freight, or night service, recognize the numerous challenges brought up in at the round table discussion in Brno, and work together within FTE to solve them for a future of growth and interconnectedness for European rail.
For more information on the topics discussed in this article, see FTE’s presentation on night trains from the capacity management point of view.