Interview with Mr. Alexandru Șerban Cucu, General Director at the Ministry of Transport of Romania
1) The European Union policy objectives promote
environment- friendly means of transport, rail river and maritime
transport in particular, aiming at enhancing inter-operability and
inter-modality what are the main intermodal projects involving your
country?
The achievement of our policy objectives in the field of
environmental sustainability is a constant goal in the investment
process of Romanian transport infrastructure, especially through
Sectoral Operational Programme Transport (SOPT). In this respect,
intermodality is a key area of intervention which envisages the
construction and rehabilitation of intermodal terminals of Romanian
railway infrastructure. For example, the rehabilitation of the
railway capacity in Port of Constanta.
2) In the context of TEN-T revision what are the
main priorities of Romanian Ministry in rail and road sector? Will
Romania prefer an extension of the current 30 priority project or
would it support a core priority network concept?
What Romania expects from the TEN-T revision, both for rail and
road, is a core network based on the existent priority axes which
should be extended to cover the lack of accessibility of major
regions of Romania, that neighbour with EU and non-EU members.
3) The Romanian ports faced quite well the current
economic crisis, what kind of infrastructures do they need to
improve their quality of service?
The port infrastructure of the Romanian Danube ports is in an
advanced stage of wear, due to the lack of funds necessary for
maintenance and repairing, before and after 1990. The lack of
necessary funds was the result of insufficient funds allocated from
the state budget, of the financial -economical situation after 1990
and of the river transport blockage caused by the political
situation in the ex Yugoslavia. Thus, to improve the quality of
service is necessary to invest in rehabilitation, modernization,
quays development and for ensuring the minimum necessary depths in
the fairway, designed to enhance navigation safety and the safety
of ships under the loading/unloading operations.
4) What are the main problems from an
infrastructure point of view in making the Danube river fully
integrated in the European transport system?
On some sectors, the main problems for the navigation is
represented by the clearance under bridges and the existing locks.
But on the Romanian sector of the Danube these issues do not create
any bottlenecks. The only obstacles for navigation on the Romanian
sector of the Danube are generated by the low water levels during
the dry seasons and the ports infrastructure.
In the periods of summer - autumn the water levels are
decreasing considerably resulting in worsening navigation
conditions and the minimum depth of 2.5 m recommended by the Danube
Commission are not met. The reasons for this very unfavorable
situation are mainly related to the hydrological and morphological
evolution of the Danube River for the last 100 years.
5) The Black sea ports, together with the Adriatic
ones, are often seen as the possible competitors to the northern
ports, do you see any possible synergies with them?
The applicable rules for Black sea ports are the same with the
northern ports. Even if there are some differences regarding the
national ports administration all the ports have as main interest
attracting as many clients as possible. Considering the corridor
Rhine-Main-Danube any cooperation between the northern and Black
sea ports is for the benefit of all of them.