"Due to the situation, we call the energy crisis, the emphasis in rail transport is nowadays also on "defensive driving" which is the most efficient possible control of locomotive starting to optimize traction energy consumption, a phenomenon known from road freight transport driven by the desire to optimize fuel consumption," said Ondřej Jasek, Head of Rail Services Czech Republic, DB Cargo, about the fact that rail itself is green and sustainable and added that one of the factors artificially increasing traction energy consumption is the construction and reconstruction work on key railway corridors, which is now being carried out not only in the Czech Republic but practically throughout Europe on a scale never seen before:
"Freight trains have a lower priority and due to "bouncing" on the tracks, i.e. frequent starting and subsequent braking, the consumption of traction energy and therefore costs and ultimately emissions are increasing disproportionately."
Robert Goiss of Metrans continued about investments in lightweight flat cars. "Each car that is 4 tonnes lighter will then ultimately allow more containers to be transported on one train," he said.
Robert Sobčák from Supply Chain Institute and Luboš Fronk from Railvis.com agreed that start up companies in the field of IT help big railway and logistics companies to improve and speed up communication. Good communication is a fundamental precondition for companies to be able to implement more projects and use their existing capacities to the greatest extent.
Luboš Fronk, Sales Director of RAILVIS.com, then presented the advantage of their platform in that it is very easy to share spare capacity of wagons and locomotives. He also talked about the novelty on the market where locomotive power can be sold on a spot basis. Thus, the pressure to reduce emissions does not always have to be associated with higher financial costs, but quite the opposite:
"Thanks to digitization, new savings can still be found in the supply chain. Current high energy costs are influencing the whole transport industry. Only those who make their processes effective are going to be competitive. RAILVIS.com platform is here to help the railway companies find new profits and savings during the difficult times," concluded Luboš Fronk his speech.
"In order for us as transport operators to create sustainable transport solutions with the lowest possible carbon footprint, we need a high-capacity rail infrastructure that we simply cannot do without," highlighted one of the key issues of rail infrastructure Ondřej Jašek from DB Cargo AG and concluded his speech the necessity to build new tracks: "So the solution is not only to modernize but more importantly to build new lines, just like road infrastructure. Even though we live in the 21st century, super-modern locomotives run trains on 19th-century tracks."
