Today in RailFreight Live, we discuss the revealing report on the much-discussed Harbour Line of Rotterdam. The report gives rail freight operators a feeling of recognition after facing hindrance for many years on the railway network around the Dutch port. We will also discuss the new hub policy of China, intended to better streamline New Silk Road traffic.

The show of Friday 9 October can be seen here or on the website of RailFreight Live at 1pm CET. It consists of:

• An interview with Piter Hazejager, Captrain (the Netherlands)
• A short movie about the new safety measures at Kijfhoek (the Netherlands)
• An interview with Bofei Jia, North Star Event (Shanghai)

Pieter Hazejager

The first speaker to appear in the show is Pieter Hazejager from railway undertaking Captrain. He has been an active voice over the years, trying to get sufficient attention the rail freight industry faces. They have been experiencing hindrance and economic damage as a result of the frequent disruptions, abrupt closures of freight tracks, abrupt repairs to these tracks and operational restrictions caused by environmental permit issues of ProRail.

The independent research report, carried out by Crisislab and commissioned by ProRail and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management finds that ProRail postponed long-term maintenance and investments. Management was fragmented and therefore ineffective. According to the report, ProRail is designed to operate in a structured manner (management), but not to deal with deviations (management) that always occur in practice.

Bofei Jia

In the second part, we make a live connection with Shanghai to talk to Bofei Jia, better known as Tony. He works for North Star Event, and has excellent knowledge of the rail freight industry in China. We will ask him about the recently announced investment in five hubs and other developments on the New Silk Road.

North Star Event is also the strategic event of RailFreight.com in organising the European Silk Road Summit. During this event we will have a live connection with Chengdu, to broadcast the concurrent Silk Road event taking place in Chengdu. We will ask Tony to elaborate on the speakers we will be seeing.