Workshop on Liberalization, Possible Problems and Solutions

Workshop on Liberalization, Possible Problems and Solutions for Railway Transportation Sector was held: On the 11 August 2016 of the DTD Board of Directors, during his visit to the Minister of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications, Mr. Ahmet Arslan, presented as an offer of the DTD; In the coordination of the Ministry, the Minister proposed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the UDHB, Mr. Orhan Birdal, to discuss all the problems and recommendations on railway transportation, together with all the public sector institutions in the railway transportation, to take a quick solution and to initiate a meeting process.
Tarafından Workshop on Liberalization, Possible Problems and Solution Suggestions in Railway Transportation Sector tarafından was held at 11 October 2016 by the Directorate General of Railways. All stakeholders and non-governmental organizations operating in the sector, including the DTD, were invited to the workshop.
Deputy Director of UDHB, Orhan Birdal, General Director of Railway Regulation İbrahim Yiğit, General Manager of TCDD, General Manager of Dangerous Goods and Combined Transport İsa ApaydınHayri Avcı, General Director of TÜLOMSAŞ, TÜDEMSAŞ General Manager Yıldıray Koçarslan, TÜVASAŞ Executive Vice President Cuma Çelik, TCDD Taşımacılık A.Ş. General Manager Veysi Kurt, DTD Chairman Özcan Salkaya, UTİKAD Board Member Kayıhan Turan, UND Executive Board Chairman Fatih Şener and employees of related institutions participated in the meeting.
The workshop which was organized under the coordination of DDGM was chaired by Deputy Undersecretary Mr. Orhan Birdal with the participation of the stakeholders and non-governmental organizations operating in the railway sector.
UDHB Coordination Meeting has two important features.

1. broad participation is a combination of all public and NGOs about the rail sector in Turkey for the first time a meeting was held.
2. Public and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) had the opportunity to meet during this meeting and discussed the problems and solutions together. Thus, both public and non-governmental organizations, they have the opportunity to learn face-to-face views on the liberalization of rail transport.
   The workshop was opened at 10: 00 with the speech of UDHB Deputy Undersecretary Mr. Orhan Birdal.

Mr. Orhan Birdal emphasized the importance of making the liberalization process in the fair and transparent way with the participation of the private sector in order to increase the share of railway transportation in our country, so that all stakeholders can come together and exchange their opinions and opinions about the problems and solution suggestions to have a smooth and efficient operation of the system. it is important that this kind of meetings, which provide coordination between all the stakeholders of the railway sector, will continue in the coming period and consequently the railway sector will be developed together. He stated that mutual cooperation could prevent the problems that may happen in both the legislation and the application or be resolved in a short time.
Mr. İbrahim Yiğit, Deputy General Manager of DDGM; He made a presentation on the liberalization of the railway, the legal arrangements and the new structure of the railway.
The purpose of the liberalization of the railway; to provide more efficient and high quality service with reasonable cost, to increase the competitiveness of the railway, to turn balance in transportation in favor of railway, to create an independent structure that supervises in the sector - to provide legal and structural alignment with the EU and to provide social and economic benefits by increasing employment. In this process, it has been stated that the private railway sector is always open to opinions and ideas, and that any solution can be reached by discussing it together.
Ibrahim Yiğit stated that in a short time, intense work and sub-regulations of railway law were prepared and entered into force one after the other, İbrahim Yiğit stated that the opinions and suggestions of the private sector NGOs were taken into consideration during the drafting of the regulations. He also stated that the exchange of views will continue at any time during the implementation of the legislation.
General Director of TCDD İsa Apaydın She gave a presentation on m Network Notification and Capacity Allocation Process “.
Presentation; He gave information about TCDD Restructuring, Network Notification, Capacity Allocation Process and Infrastructure Charging System. Furthermore, it stated that fair and transparent competition environment will be formed in the new period and infrastructure facilities will be offered on equal terms to private sector and TCDD Transportation Inc. in all stations.
İzzet Işık, Deputy Director General for Hazardous Goods and Combined Transport; Made a presentation about the duties and activities of the General Directorate. In the presentation, the Regulation on the Transportation of Dangerous Goods by Rail has been put into force on 16 July 2015.
Chairman of the Board of Directors of DTD, Mr. Özcan Salkaya made a presentation on DT Railway Sector Opinions DT.
DTD President Özcan Salkaya presentation of the Railway Transport Liberalization of Turkey about the grounds of the Law No. 6461; “In order to reinvigorate the role of the railways in the development and the independence of our country and to strengthen its role in transportation; Stating that there is a need to establish a railway sector that is sustainable, free, competitive, economic and social and compatible with the European Union (EU) legislation, he emphasized that the rationale of the law should be the focus of the works and arrangements of all public and private sectors.
DTD Chairman of the Board of Directors Özcan Salkaya made his presentation in the following headings.
• Application and Transition Process Problems,
• Infrastructure Problems,
• Legislation and Regulation Issues
• Wishes and wishes
Some topics under the headings in the presentation;
• Tariff incentives applied to private sector companies by TCDD, wagon discounts owned by the owner and TCDD Taşımacılık A.Ş. to ensure the continuity and growth of private sector investments. as long as it is subsidized.
• TCDD Transportation Inc.; capacity, wagons, locals, equipment, trained personnel, documents, licenses and subsidies should not be used in a way that would lead to unfair competition against the private sector.
• The Network Notice should be prepared and the Infrastructure Use Fees must be in symbolic amounts for the first 5 year. In the following years, it should be clearly determined how and by which parameters to increase.
• It should not be forgotten that the purpose of public service of the State affiliated institutions is to increase the total share of the railway instead of managing the two institutions as profit-oriented enterprises.
• Current carrying capacities of the private sector should be maintained and increased in parallel with the increase in railway transportation.
• Existing road maintenance and renewals should be completed and there should not be road closures that will last for years.
• Geometry corrections must be made in road maintenance and renewals.
• Field of Activity and Duties of the TCDD Main Statute 5 1-f «According to the article" Operates, operates or leases the non-railway areas of the existing railway infrastructure "; The loading and unloading lines in the stations and logistics centers and the 30 meter depth areas located on the unloading ramps should be open to free use of all transport companies.
• In case of changes in information, such as ECM changes, registration must not be renewed and should not be reimbursed.
• For the development and growth of private sector wagon manufacturers and maintenance companies, TCDD's tenders should be made on the equal terms of the wagon orders and the way for the procurement of offers from the private sector producers should be opened.
• Investment incentives given to the transport companies should be given to the domestic wagon manufacturers.
• Since the Safety Management System has serious installation and operation costs to companies, the EYS certificate must be given at a symbolic rate.
• The most important problem of the Private Sector will be the provision of certified personnel to perform ”Safety Critical Tasks •. Today, it is not possible to find human resources outside the retired personnel.
Therefore, arrangements for the establishment of training and implementation centers for Safety Critical Personnel should be put into force immediately.
Moreover, it should be clarified how the partnership structure of the mentioned training centers will be.
• This Law; The company aims to play an active role in the development and growth of railway transportation. Any application in the transition process should provide positive discrimination to the private sector, taking this objective into consideration.
• There should be standards in the sector. However, these standards should not be more stringent or higher than that of the developed railway network in the transition process.
• The costs of applying these standards and the required certifications should not be regarded as a revenue door to the state.
Kayıhan Özdemir Turan, a member of the Board of Directors who spoke on behalf of UTİKAD; He gave a presentation on ”Possible Problems in Liberalization and Suggestions for Solutions“.
TCDD Transportation Inc. Deputy General Director Veysi Kurt; mentioned the factors related to transportation costs, waiting and diesel prices, and the studies on tariffs and other applications to be made in the coming period.
TCDD Transportation Inc. In his speech, the General Manager stated that in the liberalized railway sector, the public train operator TCDD Taşımacılık A.Ş. stated that their work would not be easy.
As far as sitting on the public side of the table until now, they will be at the table where the private sector operators, and therefore, reviewing the costs of transportation, as a business company will work in a system that will profit will be said. For two years, transportation fees have not been increased, so they will review the transportation costs by stating that they will accelerate the transportation in the coming period and increase the quality and efficiency of the service.
TÜDEMSAŞ General Manager Yıldıray Koçarslan invited the participants to TÜDEMSAŞ Facilities to see the works done closely and talked about the intensive works and projects to meet the locomotive needs of the sector in the forthcoming period.
Hayri Avci, General Manager of TULOMSAS, gave information about the new and TSI compliant wagon production that the sector needs in the forthcoming period.
After all the presentations, the workshop ended with 16: 30 with mutual questions, answers and exchanges.
It was expressed by all the participants that such meetings were very useful for the railway sector and expressed their wishes for their continuation.