The Rise of European Private Rail
Vložit
- čas přidán 3. 06. 2024
- The Old World is known for many things: Colonizing almost the entire world, having cuisine that ranges from heavenly to the 40th circle of hell, and more.
One thing Europe is also known for is its trains. Railways criss-cross the continent, going from Narvik, Norway to Malaga, Spain.
One curious phenomenon of the European railways is the sheer number of private rail operators across the continent. These cover every market segment, from low cost budget travel, to high speed services, to luxury services.
Some of these are great, and some of these are the pre-2020 British rail system.
In today's video, we'll explore private rail entrepreneurship in Europe, why it is so prevalent, and what it could teach the world.
thumbnail by:
/ edick.boyko
sources:
docs.google.com/document/d/1R...
If you'd like to support my work, here's my Ko-fi:
ko-fi.com/tramly
socials:
Instagram: / thetramly
Twitter (I won't call it X): / thetramly
Discord: / discord
links to the equipment I use to make these videos:
Alza:
bit.ly/AlzaVideoEquipment
If you want to get anything else on Alza, you can also use this link to support the channel:
bit.ly/AlzaTramly
Amazon 🇩🇪:
Microphone: amzn.to/49f5Bcd
Monitor (not the exact same model, but with the exact same features): amzn.to/3PC8NI1
Amazon 🇬🇧:
Microphone: amzn.to/3Tu0Vtf
Monitor (not the exact same model, but with the exact same features):
amzn.to/4a6cC0u
Amazon 🇺🇸:
Microphone: amzn.to/3VvIFlO
Monitor (not the exact same model, but with the exact same features, except a better refresh rate): amzn.to/3VuGfUA
(These are affiliate links, from which I will receive a commission, however, these are the things I use to make these videos)
USAGE POLICY: I release all my videos under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license.That means that if you properly credit me (link in the description will suffice, although I would appreciate if you could credit me right in your work), and you share your work under the same or a compatible (creativecommons.org/share-you...) license as this video, you're free to use it in your work.
#trains #publictransport #czechrepublic
timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:53 The birth of private operators
3:20 The UK's private railways
5:56 Private rail across the EU
8:44 Why would anyone invest?
11:08 Bloopers
Night train operators like European Sleeper could also unlock some latent demand in the rail market (or take passengers from airlines).
Absolutely! I've actually taken a night train, from Prague to Poprad in the Tatra mountains, and although the beds are REALLY NOT made for tall people, otherwise it was great
Hi, one argument I have against open access competition that compete with already existing services: that they only run on profitables routes (obviously), and mostly take clients from the state-owned railway. That means they make less money, as it's used to subsidise smaller routes, it's not a great cycle.
In France per example, we have almost 2 competitors on the Paris-Lyon axis because it's the number 1, but you have absolutely nothing on smaller lines. However SNCF has to run the two types of service.
However open access can be wonderful to create new services, like European Sleeper per example
Yeah.. Open access can be a double edged sword
Issue is that in France smaller lines are managed by the regions, and it is a different legal framework than for the national lines. Basically there is no open access competition on the regional level, because each line is awarded to one operator by the region. However, Intercity lines could have competitions, especially from compagnies like Flixtrain
In austria we have in addition to regiojet also the westbahn which gives necessary competition to öbb, but also necessary capacity, I think that they are great honestly and much less overcrowded than öbb
Private competition can be great if it's well managed! (unlike in Britain, for example 💀💀💀)
@@TheTramly yeah, britain used a stupid privatization approach, either do it fully like japan, or the way the rest of europe does it
One small correction regarding the intro about Sweden would be that competition with SJ in the commercial passenger sector was only allowed from 2010 onwards.
I'm not a fan of it. If private companies want to enter the market, they should at the very least cooperate regarding fares and passenger rights. One example: If you have an ICE season ticket between Berlin and Wittenberge, you can use the local trains and ICE as well as EC trains. Now Flixtrain came along and took some paths away from DB, especially in peak hours. So the affected EC trains had to be canceled on that section, instead Flix was now serving the station at that time. But they don't accept these season tickets, which means commuters have to buy a flixtrain ticket for every single time they want to use that train; since Flix themselves doesn't offer any season tickets.
And that's just one example. Private operators should be forced to accept certain kinds of tickets, otherwise the system will just get more complex and frustrating for the customer. That's why Generalabo, Klimaticket and Oneticket are so important. But it only really works if everyone participates.
I agree.
The Czech Republic has kinda solved this problem, they introduced a ticket called the "OneTicket" which is valid for all operators, state or private
tickets absolutely need to be harmonized
@@TheTramly Yes, but you still have to force them to give you one ticket, they will never to it automatically, I believe that classic tickets of these companies should be banned completely and OneTicket should be only valid ticket. Except high class trains ofcourse. Also ČD for some reason that nobody understands removed their return ticket, while OneTicket still has return ticket with 5% discount, so One Ticket can be actually cheaper than ČD ticket. I understand taht they probably have more bakšiš from selling their own tickets, but this needs some proper solution. Existence of OneTicket is good, but when they still defaultly sell their tickets, it's a problem.
another good example is Spain - especially the high-speed market.
Italy is making small steps in this direction, currently with one big non-state company (Italo).
Yeah, I've actually used Italo train footage in the video!
Greek railway operations were sold to Italy for 45.000.000€ in 2017 😭😭
Splitting up the state railways was a horrible idea. In example of Germany, before 1994 there was absolute competency and cooperation of all units involved. The track maintenance teams cooperated with the schedule planners, drivers could be used on regional or long distance trains, connecting trains could be contacted to wait, rolling stock was used widely and shared, staff knew their local areas and could give sufficient information. Nowadays everybody is fighting with eachother, trains get delayed because no one told anyone about construction works, trains are cancelled because there's no staff or rolling stock available even if a different branch has them, employees don't know anything and can't really give you information.
Sounds like it's more of a management issue than anything, but I agree that if the railways were controlled by one massive conglomerate, management would probably be simpler
I agree, in Czech Republic, it's hell now. All those very badly organised reconstructions, delays and other problems....it was never that bad before. But on other hadn, our infrastructure and stations look significantly better now, but when trains don't really work reliably, I would prefer jumping to mud from train like before, but trains going on time.
All things you mentioned are problem even here, like sometimes they send conductor from completely different region because of some emergency situation and he doesn't even know your local tickets and zones, so it is a problem. When commuting trains are operated by ČD (state company) they still mostly wait for each other, but because of stupid timetables (like you have only 3 minutes to change your train) it happens that it will go anyway because it can't wait that long for your delayed train.
With private companies, I don't think they will wait because of people from some other train, but maybe I am wrong and it happens somewhere.
But what is the worst for me is that private companies completely destroyed our ticket system, it's very complicated and annoying now. And eve with all competition, prices are going up really fast.
Free market doesn't always work great, our mobile operators are a good exmple of it, when there is only few of them, they will make cartel deals and it's gonna be expensive anyway.
@@TheTramly Everything Rail related was better when the Trains were a Gov.Organisation and hat little competition.
Mordern Railway sucks
in poland we have the worst of all worlds - tons of train companies but owned by the government or regions - none of the benefits of competition, all of the downsides of fragmentation
i thought you guys only had PKP💀
@@TheTramly Intercity trains are operated by PKP Intercity. Infrastructure by PKP PLK. Regional trains sometimes by polregio, sometimes by the railway of the voivodeship (Like masovian railways for example). But not all voivodeships have their train company.
Hello Tramly. I have to say that in Romania, we have privatized our rail in the same way. We have 5 operators, state-owned CFR Calatori, Transferoviar Calatori, Regio Calatori, Astra Transcarpatic and Softrans. Transferoviar Calatori and Regio Calatori specialize in small routes, e.g. Ploiesti - Slanic, but also have some longer distance routes. Astra Transcarpatic and Softrans focus on longer services, such as Bucuresti-Constanta or Bucuresti-Brasov. Worth noting both of these companies are subsidiaries of rolling stock companies. I do have to say that in my honest opinion Astra is the best, but Softrans isn't bad either. Their home-made EMUs look kinda bad though.
also why is there no liberec-prague direct train service
From the sound of it, it's quite similar to what we've got going on here, except for the ownership, our private train operators are owned by businessmen
and about Liberec to Prague, I have absolutely 0 idea, that route surely has to have enough demand like wtf💀
@@TheTramly oh don't get me wrong regio and transferoviar are owned by businessmen too
@@skyde72 im not sure if there ever was a dierct connection between prague and liberec when ČD operated there, but ever since arriva took over no, and i think the only reazon why is because you have to change direction at turnov but cmon thats just an excuse, but thats not the only thing arriva made worse, they stopped opperating direct trains to harrachov because their trains cant climb the steep incline, and the trains themselfs dont have air conditioning witch is fine by me if you have big openable windows, witch they alsow dont have so in summer when the trains are packed you feel like youre in an oven, not plesant
@@husemat I see
The journey from Liberec to Prague, from what I know, takes longer (and would take longer with direct service too) than going by bus...
So there isn't really demand for a PRG - LBC train, since everyone takes the bus, and on the PRG - LBC route, FlixBus and Regiojet have to compete for passangers, so they keep the price down, and that means it's way cheaper than going by train...
I mean... Last time I went to LBC i went by train, but not everyone is a huge railfan to want to sit on a train for 4hrs(or in my case 7hrs, since I went via Stará Paka), when the bus will get them where they need in 1,5hrs...
So even though the train has some undoubtable benefits, like being allowed to eat and having a better ability to work on something while on the way, I think that untill a better train line from Liberec to Prague is constructed, or at least parts of the line are renovated / improved to achieve usable times (that was a good one), direct Prague - Liberec service probably isn't going to happen
it's so funny to me how the only profitable routes in sweden are stockholm-gothenburg and malmö-stockholm-åre, with the latter being operated only by snälltåget aside from the national operator.
Private transit just doesn't work here, it's like when americans assume people would just fly everywhere and i go into a fit of laughter because we have like 10 commercial airports in the entire country and the only routes that see some genuine domestic traffic are between the 3 big cities, the far north, and the one island that is in the middle of the baltic sea.
Most of the areas of sweden cannot be reached by plane or private transit, it simply does not exist and cannot exist.
I wouldn't say that's the case given all SJ routes are open access. A majority of them do however get regional funding of some sort but Malmö - Gothenburg is entirely paid for by SJ there just isn't any competition from the private operators. The Gothenburg - Umeå night train could also be considered as such but given it connects with the Stockholm - Duved one it's hard to entirely pass it. Most of the region subsidised routes under SJ are only in certain sections like for example the Stockholm - Falun IC which has regional tickets valid within Dalarna but not the entire way showing that there is likely some profit made from it.
@@Brickblock1wastaken i am specifically talking about non-SJ operators
Actually you forgot one of Europes most intresting private operator: Westbahn.
9:25 My country (Spain) is doing it on its public operator (Renfe), and from what I've seen in Catalonia so far, not counting the normal crappy services, it's been good. Tho, Madrid's whole transport network (Metro and Trains) collapsed yesterday
6:55 too harsh on the oppidum
I wonder if foreigners can understand these Brno = oppidum jokes. 😀
ČD recieves subsidies for the Prague-Brno route! But RegioJet does not.
hm.. strange, how does ČD receive subsidies and still be more expensive than RegioJet (I've looked at regular adult tickets 2 weeks from now)
@@TheTramly ČD has much more trains and their service on these routes is much better, like you have real restaurant car. RegioJet is like bus on tracks, that's why it is cheaper I guess. Good for commuters I guess, but when I am going to Brno once in 10 years, I will always pick 1st class seat in restaurant car with ČD even for higher price. And even design of better class ČD trains is better.
I wanna talk about the contracting system used in Germany for regional trains. It was decided that this is the job of the states, not the federal government. So the states, or sometimes even governments below the state level, contract companies to run regional trains for them. That has one unfortunate consequence: Internal borders in Germany now matter for transit, as when a regional train is supposed to cross one, it has to be ordered by two authorities. I can't think of an example, but I think there are cases where direct connection between places was lost simply because the route crosses a border and the two sides couldn't agree on what service to order.
Before privatisation, DB had a huge pool of both vehicles and drivers that could be used mostly anywhere as required. This was obviously good in case a train broke down or something. But since all those redundant vehicles and workers cost a lot of money, private operators could bid with cheaper offers than DB, with the consequence that should a vehicle break down, that's the end of the customers' journeys. This then prompted DB to reduce its fleet and staff size to be more competitive in the bidding process, so now it's got the same problem as the private operators. Train cancellations because of staff shortages are really common these days, no matter who the operator is.
Another weird thing that's been developing more recently: The contracts usually leave the rolling stock up to the contractee, so either DB could use its massive fleet as required, or the private operator could win the contract with the promise of more modern rolling stock. But what's starting to become more common is that the contractor supplies the vehicles. Which raises one question: Where's the competition? The traveling public gets the same trains no matter the operator, so the only competition is how cheap the offers are. That further insentivises the operators to cut costs, so they reduce the amount of staff as much as possible. That's not how competition on railways should work in my opinion.
I think competition on railways can work, especially on medium to long distance routes, as seen in France, Spain, and Italy for example. There, the customer is the traveling public. They can choose which service they take on their journey. But franchise models for regional transit don't really work, at least in my opinion.
Privatization is unfortunately a really complex thing, bringing advantages, as well as disadvantages
I'd argue that after introducing private operators, the legacy state owned ones finally got a reason to innovate and introduce new types of service again (like low-cost high-speed service with Ouigo in France), but as you have said, it can also bring massive disadvantages if mismanaged and not tightly regulated..
Direct, clear, informative and humorous...great job mate ;)
Would love to see you expand and talk more about this, expecially if you could analize the recent growth of night routes too!
Tramly: Nobody should be forced to go to Brno.
Ahh, you are a citizen of Prague I see.
Great video as always!
I'm from the UK and i want to say that a Private rail is not a good option no matter the benefits. Just look at UK where Private railways has damage us with abserd price.
Great video man!
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it
I´m from Germany and the DB ist one of the worst train companies here in regional traffic with a lot of cancellations. Around Dresden, where the biggest part of regional traffic is operated by DB it´s very worse. Since autumn 2023 there were 2 train lines in bus replacement due to a lack of train drivers and nearly all rush hour extra train are cancelled. Despite these cancellations a lot of trains are too short due to a lack of trains. The majority of private railways doing a better job than DB, especially "die Länderbahn" which is also operating in Czechia
I´m often in Czechia because I´m living near the border and the traffic in general works so much better than in Germany. But in my opinion ČD is one of the best companies with a good organisation. For example GW Train Regio isn´t even making a extra time table for contruction works, so there are trains with around 20 Minutes delay because the replacement bus was slower, meanwhile ČD trains on the same route are on time beause the time table was adapted for replacement bus. I like travelling with Leoexpress, but they have to cancel connections if one of their FLIRT is out of order, a big quality disadvantage compared to ČD
I agree that traveling with ČD is usually a decent experience, the delays are usually small, and if they're not, the vast, VAST majority of them aren't caused by ČD, bu rather by shitty organization from the infrastructure operator Správa Železnic, or due to factors beyond anyone's control
like, for example, when me and my family were traveling from Poprad in Slovakia to Prague, the train got delayed by 70 minutes because of a su*cidal person on the tracks...
which was unfortunate, but even though it wasn't ČD's fault, they refunded me 25% of the ticket price (which was nice, because international tickets for 4 people weren't cheap)
>czechia known for trains
quite a funny coincidence haha
the point still stands, but yeah, i should've found footage of some ČKD or Škoda Transportation trains
I like your humour
Thank you!
I wish we had trains in my country. There's literally only two passenger railways in my country. We used to have more, but due to extensive lobbying by the auto industry and a wave of politicians that wanted to copy the USA, we lost most of them.
Yeah, it's a damn shame, the US was literally built on rail
3:12 lmao that’s my local train service.
These rail companies are only interested in profit , not in providing a service , and it is service That EU citizens living outside cities need . Sorry to say the Eu rail network is far from providing a service for all citizens , and that needs to change .
Fun fact
John Major original plan was to spit the UK Rail into ¼s
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Four_(British_railway_companies)
There were several ideas the UK government wanted to privatise its railways - the rail managers lobbied for BR to be privatised as a whole, Major had the idea of returning to the Big Four, but the Treasury wanted franchising to be adopted as this would increase revenue. At the end of the day, the Treasury (sadly) gets their way...
@@MannyAntipov oh my