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Wednesday, April 26, 2000
Ceske drahy and Ministry of Transport and Communication grapple over restructuring of aging rail company By Jasna Sykorova But they sharply disagree on how to turn the transportation giant into a smoother, more functional company.
"The division of railway companies has proved to be inefficient," said Petr Stahlavsky, a spokesman for Ceske drahy. "For example in Great Britain costs have gone up tremendously after the separation." He said that the most efficient model is the German railway Deutsche Bahn -- a centralized holding that, though 100 percent state-owned, has strategic and decision-making independence. "We are not able to sell anything of a value higher than 15,000 Kc [$395] without state approval at the moment," Stahlavsky said. "It takes months for the state officials to decide whether we can sell old cars for recycling." Both transformation plans are being presented as ideal solutions in accordance with European Union practices, that would help get Ceske drahy out of the red. Still, the restructuring process is not an easy one. "I have proposed 15 bills and 60 regulations during my term as minister; the restructuring legislation for Ceske drahy has been the most controversial among them," Antonin Peltram, former minister of transport and communications, said during an interview on the Czech radio station Frekvence 1, after his dismissal by Prime Minister Milos Zeman in mid-April. "I am not sure whether [new Minister Jaromir] Schling will be more successful with getting it through," Peltram added. Same service for more money Ceske drahy has been undergoing a transformation for 10 years, and to the outsider, it seems nothing much has changed. A visitor to the palace on the Vltava River that houses both CD headquarters and the Transport Ministry finds corridors reeking of the Czech liqueur Becherovka early in the morning, and offices as stuck in the 1970s as their worn furniture. Passengers, meanwhile -- except those on a few long-distance EuroCity and InterCity trains -- travel on 20-year-old cars with broken windows and toilets. What's more, Ceske drahy's plan to increase prices by 10.7 percent as of May 28 is the fifth jump since 1990. "I am traveling twice a month, [and] if the prices go up again I will travel less often or use buses instead," said Radim Habartik, a young man from Moravia who studies in Prague. "To pay 10 percent more is not that much, but if you see with what productivity people at Ceske drahy work -- such as three people doing something where one would be enough -- I am just not willing to pay more." According to a report from the Czech Highest Supervisory Office (Nejvyssi kontrolni urad, NKU) quoted in the Czech daily Mlada fronta Dnes, wages for CD employees increased 12 percent between 1996 and 1998, while productivity dropped by 3 percent. Ceske drahy, the largest employer in the Czech Republic, has about 86,000 workers, but the number decreases every year, Stahlavsky said "The trade unions of Ceske drahy are very powerful and are able to enforce the wage increase at the same time as the productivity decrease, together with the slowest possible number of layoffs," Stahlavsky said. State will decide According to Jaroslav Vrana, the company's loss will be 4.9 billion Kc this year, roughly equivalent to the cost of purchasing 100 new rail cars. This year the state is planning to pay 6.6 billion Kc in support of Ceske drahy. Vrana said that it costs 70 Kc per kilometer to run a train, compared to 23 Kc per kilometer for buses. And that, he said, is too much. "In Autumn 2000, the municipalities will have the right to decide what trains they need to transport passengers living in their region," Vrana said. Because they will be ordering the exact number of trains they need, the system will be more efficient, Vrana explained. CD's Stahlavsky doesn't think that is a feasible idea. Most trains pass through more than one region, so municipalities will not be able to reach a consensus. Can Ceske drahy and the ministry agree on anything? "The state is the owner of Ceske drahy, so the state will decide [about Ceske drahy restructuring] and not the management," Vrana said. Jasna Sykorova's e-mail address is jsykorova@praguepost.cz
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