In the Republic of Moldova, rail transport services must be separated from the management of railway infrastructure, EBRD expert Corneliu Coteț stated in a public debate hosted by IPN News Agency. According to him, state-owned enterprise “Moldova’s Railways” should be urgently restructured as the country should not have only one railway company and this company in Moldova belongs to the state.

The expert of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development noted that in order to ensure the modernization of railway transport infrastructure and services, more operators should enter the market. The competitive environment will favor the improvement of the quality of services, even if the number of people who choose rail transport is small.

“At the European level, we cannot have one railway company that belongs only to the state. The infrastructure part must be separated from the business part. We need to make sure that we lay the foundations of a potential new rail transport system. Probably, it will not be an efficient road, from an economic point of view, because we do not have a very high use of rail transport either on the passenger side or on the freight side. We are a transit country. If something happens in Ukraine and they no longer need our transport routes, the Republic of Moldova will suffer economically. The Republic of Moldova does not produce much to use the railway capacity so much. As for passenger transport, the number of passengers is very small. We need to make sure that passengers who want to switch from road to rail transport have the necessary routes,” said Corneliu Coteț.

According to the expert, a developed railway and road infrastructure will make foreign investors to start businesses in the Republic of Moldova, Romania being an eloquent example in this regard.

“At the European level, we also see strong emphasis on the railway side. Rail transport returns as a primary means of transport for both freight and passengers. We must also understand that rail transport is essential for both citizens and companies. We have the example of Romania. We see that the western part of Romania is much better treated by potential economic partners because railway and road infrastructure there is much more developed than in the eastern part. The urban-rural interconnection is another aspect. We have many rural localities that are not connected to the urban area. One of the European practices is that the rural is interconnected with the urban for the prosperity of both types of localities,” the expert pointed out.

The public debate entitled “Transport in the Republic of Moldova, Romania and Ukraine: interconnection and European integration” was the sixteenth edition of the project “Double integration through cooperation and information. Continuity”, funded by the Department for Relations with the Republic of Moldova. The content of the debate does not represent the official position of the Department for Relations with the Republic of Moldova.