AK Party Kars Member of Parliament Ahmet Arslan, on the draft TCDD bill prepared by the government, the parliament sent: Answered questions about what the new TCDD draft law envisages opening the railway to the private sector and the restructuring of the sector.
QUESTION: The bill was referred to parliament. What is intended with this bill?
AHMET ARSLAN: With this project, the monopoly will be lifted and liberalized, and the sector is aimed to open up to competition. We need to give an example of the aviation industry in order to better understand our people. A lot of actors in the aviation industry now. In the past it was monopoly. Now there is a regulation unit in the aviation industry. Civil aviation general directorate. A regulator is a supervisory body that checks and examines whether people are working according to the rules. There's a unit running the airports. The general directorate of state airfields keeps airports ready as airplanes can come and go, take passengers and take passengers again. But public squares have a task that people usually don't know. The airplanes have a signal system that controls the routes, the routes, the descent to the airports. So there's air traffic. It is the general directorate of state airfields that direct and manage air traffic. They also have flying companies, ie transport companies. Turkish airways were monopolized in the past. Instead, many private companies were established. The sector was opened to market, liberalized and opened to competition. As such, many players are coming out. I said it so that it would be especially in people's minds.
TCDD TRANSPORT IS NO ONLY
Republic of Turkey will become your state iron railway infrastructure company. In other words, he will make all the lines, make the tracks, make his station, make the logistic center, especially the electricity, the signal will make the state railways again. The trains on the rail network go with a signal system. Signal system in the Republic of Turkey following the state railways, the state railway infrastructure operator will do as general manager. However, there is a new company, which owns the train, runs the train, carries the cargo and the passenger. Its name is TCDD transportation AS. TCDD transportation AS is being established with the current bill. The reason why this name is not different is the TCDD name in the world. TCDD is also an operating company because the world knows TCDD especially in terms of transportation. TCDD transport is no longer a monopoly. Railways are not a monopoly on infrastructure investments, as they can do business, they can now carry locomotives, wagons, trains, freight and passengers, carry passengers, bring their own locomotive, own train, own wagon in the private sector, and now on these lines the railway use these lines to give the rent.
RAILWAYS HAVE BEEN DETACHED TO TWO COMPANIES.
QUESTION: Will the state railways continue to provide transportation services within this structure?
AHMET ARSLAN: Railways are now separated into two separate companies. First, electricity, signal, infrastructure investments are maintained, repaired, ready for operation and control, is a company that controls the signal. Secondly, a new company is established which departs from the railway. It is the operating company that carries freight and passengers on these lines. But in other companies like this, they can become a transportation company by the private sector. In the name of freight and passenger transport, the business provides the railway infrastructure.
PRIVATE SECTOR IS PRACTICAL, FAST AND DYNAMIC
QUESTION: How will this make the private sector attractive, how will the private sector enter this system?
AHMET ARSLAN: The railways are now operating. He keeps his train, his locomotive, his wagon ready to run and he carries cargo and passengers. However, it does it with state or public practicality, or does it with public status. For example, railroad trains carry rail train. The block is ready to load the private sector wagon in train transportation but it is still choosing its own speed. In the new system, companies will install the wagon itself if they wish, or they will enter the system whenever they want to get the necessary permission from the railroad. Here is the joke; while working, our train is running, while finding the element to the train, any element of the maintenance of a man to keep him in his stead while you are moving with the speed of the private sector. However, the next day when the railroad makes a decision that can not apply this decision. Because it has to comply with a legislation, permits procedure, man-taking procedure and a waste of time. The railroad makes a prediction to prevent this. Within the framework of this prediction, the man, locomotive and wagon are already contained. But when this prediction cannot be fulfilled, some of them become idle. But the private sector is not. If the private sector needs to make a prediction, but the next day needs a new car, if there is a need for a locomotive, it has the opportunity to decide on the evening and make the need for it in the morning. Therefore, private sector is the practical or private sector speed and dynamics. The important thing is to attract the private sector into the sector in terms of speed, dynamics and practicality, to open the sector to competition as in aviation, to liberalize and to carry a lot more cargo and passengers, our people will benefit more from this, the network will become widespread.
THE ROAD ROAD INVESTMENT IS EXPENSIVE ACCORDING TO THE ROAD ROADS
QUESTION: What is the share of railways in the transportation network?
AHMET ARSLAN: The share of railways in the transportation network does not compare with the 50 years ago. The reason 1950 is the average 135-136 km per year up to the years. Made of railroad, freight transportation made especially with these lines. In 50-70, 80 has a share of transportation in 50, while 2003 has been abandoned due to neglect of the railway. Even the existing ones have not been transformed with an electric signal and their maintenance has not been done sufficiently. 120 km. the speed of the lines has been reduced instead of renewing the lines as a train has been accelerated. Therefore, the 60 year of this negligence, 50'li freight transport, 70 passenger transport of the percentage of 5'lerin have been sentenced. We know that the railroad investment is expensive initially, but it is very cheap. Because you use the railroads for a hundred years, the attitude of the care must be taken, but like roads, there is no need to completely renew the 5 ı 6 over the years. Therefore, to make the railroad more common means that rail transport becomes cheaper and passenger transport becomes cheaper. For instance, the high speed train between Eskişehir and Istanbul was opened. Now the passenger's 90'in over the train uses and goes by train. So if you offer the service, our people prefer a lot. Moreover, when the high-speed train Ankara came to Istanbul, you went to Esenboğa airport, you waited for the plane, you went to Atatürk airport, you came to the city center a few hours maybe 5 hours. But not so. When you get out of the high-speed train, you are in Haydarpaşa at 3 hours. Therefore, railways are a more preferable type of transportation. Just use it well. In this sense, the private sector dynamics to be put into service.
TCDD TRANSPORTATION IS ESTABLISHING A COMPANY.
QUESTION: State railways will be divided into two to direct traffic and the other will determine the price. How will the private sector enter?
AHMET ARSLAN: Current state railways will provide infrastructure services and manage traffic. TCDD transportation company is also established. This company will run business. However, apart from this, the headquarters of the Ministry of Transport has the General Directorate of Railways. The 15 was established about a month ago. This is the regulation unit. There is such a regulation within the ministry of transport to ensure that tariffs stay within certain limits, that everyone can work in this sector by competing equally, and that the infrastructure operator does not provide an extra price for their own transportation.
CENTERS ABROAD IN PLACE NO LONGER HAVE A LOT OF TURKEY
QUESTION: Especially in the name of freight transport will be a density in Istanbul and Izmir. Are there targeted centers or how will the regional centers be?
AHMET ARSLAN: There is 16 logistic center in the investment program of the general directorate of railways. The aim here is to disseminate certain load centers all over Turkey. Therefore, in Sivas, Erzurum, Kars, logistics centers to be able to do, where the cargo to be met and from there to ensure the correct distribution. The new railway network requires this. Now, Turkey just west railway network not improve East of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars with the ingenuity of Central Asia, Kars, Iğdır, you can go to Iran with Nakhchivan ingenuity, to the south of a line out of Mus from Erzincan downloads, Kirkuk Kayseri further downward downloads The network is expanding. Therefore, in the east, a structure that broadens the network is followed. Not surprisingly, in many parts of Turkey it has now centers abroad. For example, Erzincan-Trabzon is one of them. There is a better improvement of it than there is in Samsun. Again, a new railway is made to Bartın Zonguldak side. They are always able to spread these loads all over Turkey to develop and lament, it is made in order to expand the project. This will not only be held in Istanbul in Izmir as before.
CRIME CRISIS
QUESTION: Who will be responsible for train accidents, how will these problems be solved?
Ahmet Arslan: This service is currently being carried out by the public. However, the new system will be in the private sector in business administration as it will no longer be free. In the event of a railway accident, there is an accident-related delegation. This is envisaged in the public bill. There are representatives of the Ministry, representatives of the transport company, and an accident-incursion committee with the infrastructure operator. It will be in this work from the beginning of the Crimean Delegation and how to report, how to make the determination of the question marks are also left to stay in the bill.
PENSION FUNCTIONS EM
QUESTION: This project provides for employees.
AHMET ARSLAN: Especially in the sense of train, locomotive and wagon operation, the employees of the railways will be transported to TCDD. Therefore, if the people in this company who are competing with the private sector practicality are full of retirement and want to retire, there is a substance to improve the personal rights of the persons in the 3 month. Thus, those who have retired will be paid more and they will leave if they want to leave. The company will thus gain a more competitive status and structure with the private sector.
ONLY THE SECTOR IS LISTENING
QUESTION: In a context, the railways will be privatized just like in the airways and in the name of citizens, there will be more than one option to get to the service area. Naturally, there will be many questions and doubts in humans. There are concerns. Does this bill cover all these perturbations?
AHMET ARSLAN: If you call it privatization, people are right to be nervous. However, the opening of the sector to competition and liberalization is definitely not privatization. This is what happened in the aviation industry. Everyone was afraid that Turkish airlines would get too small. However, companies other than such airlines have grown a lot, but Turkish airlines have become the giants of the world due to the fact that they were opened to competition. The railways maintain their current structure. The operator of the railways maintains its position as a public company under the name of TCDD Transportation AŞ. The right of the private sector to work only on the lines is brought. Thus, for example, 9-10 years ago, when the aviation industry opened up to competition, 8 million passengers were transported on domestic routes and approximately 25 million on international routes. Today, Türkiye carries around 120 million passengers a year. If you think about the employment and added value created by this sector, we say that it has been opened to competition, fortunately it has been liberalized. It really preserves the current public structure on the railways. Only the industry is liberalizing. The private sector can enter the system in order to make transportation, so I think people should be happy about this. – Newspaper
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