Introduction

“Expect railway reforms to take some time — five to ten years; if the initial reform program is successful, the process will likely continue.”


How Long Will Railway Reforms Take?

The time investment is substantial—but so are the benefits. The most critical step in railway reform is when the responsible authorities agree that something must be done and they take the first step to begin the process.

Railway reform is a multi-year effort—depending on the number and complexity of the reform goals and objectives, reform can take five to ten years. Often the first set of reforms is followed by a period of adjustment, then further reforms, usually less dramatic, to refine the outcomes. For example, EU rail sector reforms have now been underway for over two decades and most stakeholders expect these efforts to continue indefinitely as the reform process is rolled out across many EU countries.

Typically, it takes months and sometimes several years to reach any agreement on reform goals and objectives. Often, a strategy study is required to consider reform alternatives and their implications and prioritize objectives. Public consultations should be integral to the strategy study. When agreement is reached, governments usually need to pass legislation and may need to build new institutions for regulatory oversight—then, more time is needed to staff and equip the oversight institutions. In parallel, the railway itself must be audited and valued; its institutional structure must be designed and implemented; its employees counted and their skills assessed. Each element can take a year or more. Even simple concession-type reforms require several years to move from recognizing that reform is needed to completing the concession deal.

Railways, especially state-owned railways, are powerful institutions; they are typically the largest single employer in a country and generally have a longstanding institutional life. Due to their size and importance, railways have considerable political clout, which is a significant factor to consider in designing reform efforts. Because railways are so powerful, successful reform efforts are often precipitated by a crisis to rally sufficient political will to surmount the inevitable difficulties involved. The larger the railway—measured by staff numbers, revenues, or share of state budgets—the more profound the crisis must be to find sufficient political support for sustained rail reform efforts. Some preliminary aspects of the reform process can be completed before a crisis is imminent, but implementation of significant sector reforms will require substantial and sustained efforts by responsible government entities and a crisis sharpens their resolve and focus.

International experience with reforms has proven that a comprehensive communications strategy is essential. The larger and more powerful the railway reform targets, the more thorough the outreach effort must be. Most successful reformers have hired professional communications firms to design and coordinate a sophisticated outreach and information dissemination program to consult the public, employees, shippers, and other stakeholders about their concerns, to explain the need for reforms and the resulting benefits, and to keep stakeholders informed of progress.

    
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