The famous Pendolino trains are produced at a factory in the small Italian town of Savigliano, Piedmont. The finished handsome trains contrast against the backdrop of old brick shops and the area of the enterprise is small compared with Soviet gigantomania. Everything is very compact and even cozy. Not only trains are produced here, entire countries’ dreams of overcoming time and geographical barriers are also realized and even geopolitical strategies are brought to life.
Alstom’s Senior Vice President Roland Kientz is endlessly accommodating. He gives us his Mercedes for use together with his personal driver while he himself takes his things out of the car’s trunk and transfers to a bus. He made this gesture, which is unusual for top management in Ukraine, to enable us to get to the airport without problems because the interview that we recorded right here at the factory took longer than expected.
In 2009, Alstom believed in its prospects on the Ukrainian market after the successful experience of launching its Allegro trains on the St. Petersburg-Helsinki line in Russia. Indeed, the French company’s proposal made the Transport Ministry’s shortlist during selection of rolling stock for the 2012 European football championship. However, Hyundai was declared the winner after presidential elections.
Poland, which was in a similar situation, selected Alstom. However, the maiden journey of the high-speed trains on Polish soil is only scheduled for December 14 this year (two years after the 2012 European football championship). The European Union paid for more than half of this expensive project with direct funding and preferential loans. Poland could not have implemented it itself, talk less of Ukraine. In addition, the implementation of the project was marked by great nervousness and scandals that may seem like child’s play compared with Ukraine’s problems with Hyundai trains breaking down in the winter.
Flexible rates like airlines The very unprofitable Polish passenger railway company, PKP Intercity, jumped at what was possibly its last lifeline. It placed its bet on the premium segment: an aerodynamic nose designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, 402 easy chairs in the first and second classes, plus three business compartments and internet. However, the most critically important thing in this project is speed. Will the Pendolino trains be able to cover the distance from Warsaw to Gdansk in less than three hours to compete with Ryanair while being more comfortable and affordable than cars? This is highly questionable because the average speed of the Pendolino trains in Poland will most likely not exceed 200 kilometers per hour in 2015.
A manager from the LOT airline was hired to formulate an effective pricing policy for the Pendolino trains. The bet was placed on a flexible tariff system based on the one used by airlines. Ticket prices will start at EUR 12 if tickets are bought at least two weeks before a journey. There will be only 20 such tickets per train. The closer the day of a journey is, the higher the ticket price. Various promotions and sales are also available. The maximum price of a ticket from Warsaw to Gdansk is EUR 35.
With Brussels’ money The purchase of the 20 Pendolino high-speed trains and their maintenance over a period of 17 years cost more than PLN 2.7 billion (about EUR 640 million). Out of this amount, about EUR 390 million was spent on purchase of rolling stock. In addition, more than EUR 3.5 billion was spent on upgrading roadbeds to meet the standards required for the Pendolino high-speed trains. However, this sum provided a lift to Poland because half of the cost of the project was financed under the European Union’s Operational Programmed Infrastructure and Environment (OPI & E) and with state-guaranteed loans from the European Investment Bank.
Initially, there was a problem: Brussels considered such financial assistance impermissible because the Pendolino trains will have to serve the most profitable segment of premium transport services. However, a compromise was reached: only transportation of passengers in second-class cars will be financed from the European budget.
Polish manufacturers of railway rolling stock made a qualitative leap in early 2013, casting doubt on the need for PKP Intercity to purchase 20 Pendolino trains. The Pesa company successfully completed the testing of the new Gama Marathon locomotive (which reaches a speed of 200 kilometers per hour) while the Newag company displayed a new train that broke Poland’s rail speed record of 201.4 kilometers per hour.
Consequently, the question arose whether it was necessary for Poland to purchase Pendolino trains manufactured by Alstom. Manufacturers admit that the Pendolino is a different generation of trains capable of accelerating to 250 kilometers per hour, but it will not travel faster than 200 kilometers per hour in Poland because of the state of the country’s railway infrastructure. PKP Intercity will pay PLN 1.6 billion (about EUR 390 million) for 20 Pendolino trains while five Newag Impuls trains cost PLN 81 million (EUR 19 million) or five times cheaper if one considers the cost of a single train.
160 instead of 250 In December 2014, there will be a shortage of ERTMS level-two signaling systems, which, for example, help train drivers to stop a train when boundary parameters are exceeded. The PKP company claims that it will complete all the work on the railways by the end of next year, but it confirms the fears concerning the travel times. "We will reach speeds of up to 160 kilometers per hour on the Warsaw-Gdynia line in December 2014, and the travel time will be about 3 hours 15 minutes,” said Robert Kuczynski of PLK. “We will reduce the time by 15-20 minutes in the second half of 2015. Then, we will reach speeds of up to 170-200 kilometers per hour."
What about the situation in the south of the country? In test mode, the Pendolino reaches speeds of more than 275 kilometers per hour on the central railway line. This must be the only section of rail track in Poland that is adapted to withstand an operational speed of 200 kilometers per hour. This is precisely the speed that will allow the trains to travel from the capital to Katowice in 2 hours 15 minutes.
Even the builders of new overpasses on the Olszamowice-Wloszczowa track are still absent, as a result of which trains will have to slow down. The more realistic time of travel to Krakow in December 2014 is 2 hours 30 minutes.
Work on the E30 line will not be completed before 2015, and this is precisely why the Pendolino trains will not reach Rzeszow in the promised time. Almost all the quoted travel times are approximate and not certain. This is because PKP Intercity started from the end, i.e. with the purchase of a fleet of trains, says Karol Trammer, the editor-in-chief of the Z Biegiem Szyn publication. "If you calculate the average speed of the Pendolino in Poland, you will find that it is lower than the speed of conventional trains in Germany and Austria, which, by the way, cost half as much. The only value would be to use tilting cars, but they are not expected in the Polish version. Outwardly, it will be a space vehicle from which it will not be possible to squeeze anything more than what can be squeezed from conventional trains,” Trammer said.
In late October, six weeks before the launch of the super trains, Polskie Linie Kolejowe, the company that is responsible for maintenance of railway Polish infrastructure, closed a key 60-kilometer railway section that has been upgraded to the standards high-speed trains for renovation. The reason for this is erosion of roadbed by groundwater. It is unclear how long the repair work will take, but it will not be completed before the end of November. The Pendolino’s travel time from Warsaw to Gdansk will increase from 2 hours 58 minutes to 5 hours if the repair cannot be completed in time.
International scandal A real diplomatic scandal erupted in May this year over the contract for supply of the Pendolino trains to Poland. The French were supposed to deliver the first Pendolino high-speed trains to Poland on 6 May because the full launch of the trains was planned for December 2014. However, Alstom proposed trains with the maximum speed of 160 kilometers per hour at the last moment, although the relevant contract provided for 250 kilometers per hour.
"We paid for something different from what we got in the end," Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister Janusz Piechocinski said in April while commenting on the situation. The issue was discussed at a meeting of the Polish government. The Poles immediately set the clock ticking for Alstom, threatening a fine of EUR 4 million per month for contract violation (EUR 480,000 for each of the eight trains not received in in May).
Alstom claimed that Poland did not have the infrastructure necessary to conduct tests at the speed of 250 kilometers per hour. The company proposed that the first trains should have a certification that is lower than the certification required by the terms of the relevant tender. The Poles disagreed because they had previously invested huge resources in its modernization and threatened to pull out of the contract. As a result, Alstom had to pay a fine and return to the delivery schedule, admitting defeat.
