A liberalised transport market on which over 300 railway undertakings currently compete, plus a complex structure of regulatory responsibilities that has resulted from the general conditions of our federal system, have led to different strategic and business interests that require reconciliation if the overall economic viability of rail as a transport mode is not to suffer. The fact is simply that rail no longer has a monopoly on transport. Competition between the various modes of transport is forcing the railways to continually develop and enhance their mobility and logistics products, but also to improve the economic viability of the services they provide. What we need therefore are interdisciplinary management functions, which aim to achieve the economic optimum for the entire rail system. Two tasks can be identified: firstly, an interdisciplinary strategic management function that provides the guide rails, as it were, for the further development of the system and also prepares an effective representation of the national interests in international standardisation and regulatory projects. And secondly, an interdisciplinary operational management function that deals with the large number of day-to-day problems in a complex rail system and has the job of avoiding less-than-optimal solutions. How these interdisciplinary management functions relate to each other in terms of the roles assigned in Germany following the Rail Reform is shown. The regulatory authorities are supported by inspection and test facilities, and by various institutes in the performance of their public service duties, in the approval of means of production and in the supervision of operations and maintenance. The economic viability and quality of a rail system, in other words the safety level, the operational costs, the reliability of the means of production and ultimately the punctuality are very much dependent on how the knowledge loop, meaning the feedback of experience from operations and maintenance, is organized.


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    Title :

    Central technology competence: prerequisite for the economic success of large railway operators


    Contributors:


    Publication date :

    2008


    Size :

    19 Seiten, 17 Bilder


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Storage medium


    Language :

    English