RFC ATLANTIC NEWS

Covid-19 Impact on the RFC Atlantic

Update

Covid-19 Impact on the RFC Atlantic

Since the beginning of March 2020, all European countries are more and more affected by COVID 19 outbreak: consequently, all rail passenger and freight traffic are directly impacted by the consequences of this contamination (workers contaminated, important sales reduction, factories closure and road missing drivers for the last mile connection, etc…).

According to the Government priorities fixed for the rail sector, an international weekly meeting by TELCO was implemented by SNCF Réseau for increasing the crisis cooperation with its neighbouring partners in order to keep the major part of rail freight traffic operational for the nations affected by the COVID 19.

At the RFC Atlantic level, the situation is the following:

  • Germany : no capacity restriction on the network, the global traffic have decreased since the beginning of this week (-20%) especially for the passenger traffic directly impacted by a low number of people using public transport. There is no work cancellation.
    Furthermore the link to the DB Netz website gives up-to date information for RUs. Additional news are available with the following link (https://www.nlz-live.dbnetze.com)
    The report gives information about traffic increase / decrease which is relevant from strategic point of view but RUs are as well interested in the current restriction for their operational business. Hence we need to link for each country to the right national website to provide this data.
  • France : based on railway undertakings needs and human resources of SNCF Réseau regularly updated, some capacity restriction are registered linked to the signalling boxes management, especially on week end (the network is closed 8 hours on Saturday and Sunday nights + weekly nights for the line section connecting the Spanish border).
    Works on the network have been cancelled, except safety maintenance. Compared to the situation 4 weeks ago, the rail freight traffic stay at 69% of regular traffic; at the same time, the level of passenger traffic is very low (20%) for commercial reasons (no people using public transport)
  • Spain : no capacity restriction on the network, global traffic have decreased especially for the passenger traffic directly impacted by a low number of people using public transport. In what concerns the infrastructure works, there is no general rule but an assessment case by case considering several factors, which means that some prior works for maintenance and renewal will be re-taken.
  • Portugal : no capacity restriction on the network, global traffic have decreased especially for the passenger traffic directly impacted by a low number of people using public transport. For international traffic, steel trains were cancelled.
    At the national level, freight traffic decreased, especially with the cancellation of steel trains. However, cancellations are made weekly. Maintenance work has decreased, but modernization work is being carried out.