In cooperation with International Union of Railways (UIC), “Serbian Railways” organized today, on 19 October, a conference on “Collaborative approach to efficiency of the railway system-benefit of this approach for the railway companies in the Balkans” in administration building of Serbian railways. The conference was attended by Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, Director General of International Union of Railways, Chief Coordinator for Europe of UIC, Simon Fletcher, Directors General of railway companies of Slovenia, Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (Federation and
the Republika Srpska), Montenegro and as well as the representatives of JSC “Serbian Railways”.
Director General of “Serbian Railways”, Milovan Markovic, opened the reunion by encouraging all present guests to speak openly in order to help the representatives of UIC to understand better the position of Serbian railways and to contribute to better communication between the railways in the region in general.
-We should use the opportunity during this meeting to express ourselves directly about, what UIC can do for us and what we can do for UIC. It is very important to be ready to answer all the questions, to show initiative and to launch as many potential project as possible, said Mr Markovic and added that, decrease of the transport service and income is obvious, and that there are many problems in labor, but at the same time these problems are being resolved.
Jean-Pierre Loubinoux pointed out, that communication, mobility of the freight and people lie in the nature of railways, and that every person who works in this system is part of the borderless railway idea, characterized by correlation and solidarity.
In the infrastructure of Serbian railways it was invested approx. €168,8 million between 2001 and 2011, and the amount of the annual investments was approx. €17 million. Almost 7,1% of the necessary reparations are being preformed annually, which is not enough for railway modernization and rapid growth of transport operations. During the restructuration process started in 2001, the legal form of the Public Enterprise is changed into a Joint Stock Company “Serbian Railways” and four subsidiaries within the holding are founded. Issues that are to be resolved by railway administration during the next period of restructuration process are arrears, the property of JSC “Serbian Railways”, as well as the issue of the current and former subsidiaries- it was said at the conference.
Chief coordinator for Europe of UIC, Simon Fletcher, pointed out, that it is very important for Serbian railways to found a stabile holding that would link four autonomous subsidiaries and create the connection between them just like the glue.
According to the conference program that followed, some presentations were held by the railway representatives of the region and by Director General of International Union of Railways (UIC), Jean-Pierre Loubinoux.
