52 Japan Railway & Transport Review 26 • February 2001

Trends in Rail Freight

Feature

Copyright © 2001 EJRCF. All rights reserved.

In 1990, Hungary abandoned the Soviet-style political and economic system ofmore than 40 years to build one of EasternEurope’s most dynamically developingmarket economies. These complexchanges have necessitated major market-oriented changes to the freight market byHungarian State Railways (MÁV).

Transformation of FreightTransport

During the transition period in the early1990s, in some years, the amount offreight hauled by MÁV halved (Fig. 1).This explains the near halving of railwayemployees (57,000 employees in 1999)while the total route-km of MÁVpractically remained unchanged.However, it must be remembered thatHungary is a relatively small country(93,030 km2) at the crossroads of someimportant European routes with a muchsmaller volume of internal rail freighttransport than the volumes of internationaland transit freight (Fig. 2).The contradictory situation of MÁV freightwagons is especially interesting. Themassive decrease in freight volumes dueto changes in the economic system led toan excess of wagons overall, but changesin the types of freight resulted in as imul taneous shor tage o f somespecialized wagons.Road and ra i l a re the only rea lcompet i to r s fo r f re igh t becauseHungary is landlocked and the RiverDanube is the only internationalwaterway. It is well known that therailways of the planned economieswere heavily organized and subsidizedby the state, so it is not really surprisingthat the structure of the MÁV wagonfleet was ill-suited to a market-orientedeconomy. In Hungary after 1990, muchfewer bulk raw- and semi-processedmaterials were carried by rail freightwhile the quantity of smaller value-added finished goods increased. For

example, although Hungary is poor inminerals, in the Soviet era it had manycoal-fired power stations and large steelplants, requiring large imports of coaland mineral ores from other plannedeconomies When the structure of

Modernization of Hungarian Rail Freight

Fendall Burian

Hungarian industry changed radicallyafter 1990, road freight managed thetransformation better than railways,taking a larger share of the freightmarket as shown by the freight tonne-km carried by each transport mode.

Figure 2 Percentages of Different Rail Transport Types

0

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

3,000million tonne-km

1994 1995 1996 1997 1998

Internal Export Import Transit

Figure 1 Decrease in Freight Transport (1965–98)

01965 1975 1985 1990

1,000 tonne million tonne-km

1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 19980

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

20,000

40,000

60,000

80,000

100,000

120,000

140,000

53Japan Railway & Transport Review 26 • February 2001Copyright © 2001 EJRCF. All rights reserved.

Rail Freight RecoveringMarket Share

MÁV would like to recover some of it lostmarket share and is in the process ofdeveloping intermodal transport for thispurpose. One approach is use ofpiggyback wagons to transfer heavy freighttrucks to rail and alleviate road congestionand pollution. Development of a newwagon fleet will also have to take intoaccount general economic growth anddemand for increased and specializedservices matching customer demand.

At the same t ime, the rai lway isundertaking radical reforms, including achange to a holding company formed ofindependent businesses each with atransparent financial system. At present,MÁV believes that an independent freight-only railway company may be able tocompete more successfully with roadf re i gh t t han a mas s i ve r a i lwayadministration with a lot of differentactivities. For example, it could becomemore efficient by closing low-traffic loss-making lines that have been kept inoperation for other reasons.

Present MÁV Wagon Fleet

A significant part of the MÁV fleet offreight wagons is traditional 2- and 4-axleopen, covered and flat wagons of differentsizes, capacities and ages. Although suchwagons can carry almost any type ofgoods or materials, loading/unloadingtimes are longer and require differentspecialized equipment. However, thecurrent European market requiresspecialized dedicated wagons that can beloaded and unloaded quickly without

Main International Freight Transport Corridors through Hungary and Development Programme for CombinedTraffic Terminals

on Györ

Zalaegerszeg

Nagykanizsa

Budapest

Szolnok

Békéscsaba

SzegedKIsszállás

Dunaújváros

Miskolc

Záhony

Székesfehérvár

AGTC Lines

Sopron Györ

Zalaegerszeg

Nagykanizsa

Székesfehérvár

Budapest

Szolnok

Békéscsaba

SzegedKisszállás

Dunaújváros

Baja

Miskolc

Záhony Ukraine

Romania

Slovakia

Austria

R. Danube

R. D

anub

e

R. Tisza

R. T

isza

Slovenia

CroatiaSerbia

Railways Waterways

Roads

AGTC: European Agreement on Important International Combined Transport Lines and Related Installations

New lines and lines to be upgraded

54 Japan Railway & Transport Review 26 • February 2001

Trends in Rail Freight

Copyright © 2001 EJRCF. All rights reserved.

Old covered wagon (left) modified into sliding-wall wagon (right) (MÁV)

Empty basket car with basket module (PÁRKÁNY) Basket car loaded with 88-m3 self-discharging modules for bulk materials (PÁRKÁNY)

80-m3 self-discharging wagon for bulk materials (cereals) (MÁV) Intermodal Ro-La wagon for piggyback transport (MÁV)

55Japan Railway & Transport Review 26 • February 2001Copyright © 2001 EJRCF. All rights reserved.

special equipment. MÁV is decreasingthe overall number of wagons by 60% byeliminating both old worn-out andunreliable technically out-of-date wagonswhi le increas ing the number o fspecialized cars to meet demand.Recently, it has purchased the followingspecialized wagons:• Self-discharging 75- and 80-m3 bulk

wagons• Intermodal piggyback Ro-La wagons

to carry truck cab + semi-trailer, andbasket wagons to carry verticallyloaded semitrailer

• Container wagons• Self-discharging coal wagons• Sliding-wall wagons• Steel sheet-coil transporters

However, despite the downsizing, 83%of the fleet is still open, covered and flatwagons with just 12% specializedwagons. The number of tankers could bedecreased to 5% based on presentdemand.

Purchase of New Cars

To offset aging of the current wagon fleet,MÁV should be purchasing 550–600 newwagons each year, but new purchases inrecent years number just 1392 or only25% of requirements. The shortfall is dueto lack of necessary capital, but MÁV hasused its long experience in rolling stockengineering to recondition some oldwagons into new special wagons at lowcost as follows:• Old flat wagons into container wagons• Old covered wagons into sliding-wall

wagons• Old flat wagons into steel sheet-coil

transporters

• Old open cars into wagons havingnew technical parameters

Due to the serious environmental concernsin Eastern Europe, some funds wereallocated to purchase of piggyback wagonsfor carrying heavy road freight. Mostnotable are the so-called basket wagonspatented in more than 20 countries. Thebasket wagon handles modular transportof different types of goods.Despite making a good start, completemodernization of the MÁV wagon fleetwill require continuing new purchases forat least another 5 years. MÁV’s intentionis to ensure that it has a modernrestructured railway that includes freighttransport meeting market needs. �

Fendall Burian

Mr Burian is a mechanical engineer and Director of PÁRKÁNY Ltd., a Hungarian engineering company

holding patents on railway wagons developed by his team.

Comparison of Basket Wagon and Ro-La Wagon

Basket Wagon Ro-La WagonGeneral Usage Non-accompanied combined transport Accompanied combined transport Loading type Vertical Horizontal

Financial Purchase cost $75,000–90,000 $140,000–170,000 Maintenance cost $2.5–3/100 km $8–9/100 km Cost recovery term 5–7 years 16–20 years

Technical Construction In accordance with UIC (European) standards Not in accordance with UIC standards Multipurpose: Any trailers different road Single purpose: Road trains (cab + semi-trailer)

vehicles, containers, swap-bodies, over-size Max. load 68 tonnes 55 tonnes (including cab deadweight)

Loading Terminal Container terminal with crane, access ways and Simple terminal with access ways and storage area

storage area Running Under international RIV regulations Only special routes Use Single or grouped conventional trains, Only self-grouped closed trains, marshalled

marshalled by normal methods only in terminal by special methods Availability 98% 70%–75%

Special conditions Transporting drivers None Sleeping carriage Logistics Complex Simple Change-of-gauge loading Normal container loading Lorry wheels Distribution from and to terminals One cab + many semi-trailers One cab + one semi-trailer