Axel Hoerhager, a senior official of the European Investment Bank (EIB), told the conference that reforms of railways in south-eastern Europe were necessary for investments in this sector with the aim of enhancing the system.
Reforms must be uncompromising and very well prepared both technically and politically, given that only projects that are part of such reforms can compete for funds of the EIB, the largest financier of infrastructure railway projects, he added.
The rationalisation of networks, reduction of the number of employees, the strict control of costs and even the closing of some railway lines are criteria which the EIB set for applicants qualifying for its funds, Hoerhager said.
He described the situation in the railway sector in south-eastern Europe as poor.
The investments in their reconstruction are imperative, or else they will collapse, the EIB official said adding that radical measures should also be carried out.
According to figures he presented, the higher rate of state subsidies in the railway sector, the poorer efficiency and development is of that sector. That is why Hoerhager and some other participants in the conference proposed a public private partnership as a better model for financing railway companies.
Croatian Assistant Transport Minister Branimir Jerneic said that more investment could be expected in the railway system with the gradual reduction of state investment in large road infrastructure projects.
The aim of those investments is to tailor Croatian Railways to fit in the pan-European railway transport system under conditions of an open and liberalised railway market, the Croatian official said.
He said that the Croatian government was planning to earmark 720 million euros for this purpose and an additional 440 million euros for the modernisation of local railway lines over the next four years.
The three-day conference, organised by the British company Russell Publishing, pooled railway company managers from Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia-Montenegro, Macedonia, Greece, Austria, Hungary and Latvia as well as bankers and officials from Southeast Europe and the European Union.