photo: ORLEN Unipetrol Doprava /ORLEN Unipetrol Doprava Managing Director, Jaroslav Dvořák
RAILTARGET editorial team presents you with an interview with Jaroslav Dvořák, Managing Director of ORLEN Unipetrol Doprava. We were intrigued by the company's fleet modernisation and learned more about specific additions, contributions to the Green Deal plan and safety with ETCS.
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ORLEN Unipetrol Transport is modernising its fleet. Can you summarize what your main strategy is in this area and which vehicles specifically strengthen your fleet?
This year we took delivery of our sixth Siemens Vectron electric locomotive. It enables us to serve more and more locations as the electrification of the lines progresses, thus increasing the proportion of transport carried out in dependent traction. At the same time, we can fulfil the mutual synergies with ORLEN KolTrans.
The Green Deal is a vital topic in the rail sector. Meeting its targets should lead to a global reduction in emissions. What steps is ORLEN Unipetrol Transport taking in the area of environmental sustainability and the Green Deal?
Our parent group ORLEN has committed in its strategy to reduce emissions in all areas to be completely emission neutral in 2050. An integral part of these investments is the modernisation of our company's fleet. The energy consumption of Vectron locomotives is approximately half that of diesel locomotives. They also have the advantage of energy recovery during braking, which brings further energy savings. Last year alone, our five Vectron locomotives returned a total of 1,200 megawatt-hours to the grid, representing 12% of the energy consumed, which, to give you an idea, covers the average annual consumption of 550 Czech households. Thanks to the Vectrons, we have been able to steadily increase the share of transport in electric traction. The proportion of this state-supported, environmentally friendly mode of transport rose by 9% last year to 59%.
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Safety is another key issue in railway operation, to which the installation of ETCS is also intended to contribute. What is your opinion of this project, and how does your fleet stand in this respect?
By investing in ETCS, we are not only significantly improving safety but also competitiveness. The ETCS system significantly simplifies international transport, as it allows locomotives to operate on the Trans-European TEN-T corridors, whose technical parameters require the ETCS use as part of ERTMS. The new Vectron locomotives are equipped with this system, and we are also gradually installing ETCS on our diesel locomotives 753.7 "Brejlovec" and 753.6 "Bizon", which will receive the European signalling system by the end of the first half of 2023.
Could you briefly summarize the most important milestones of ORLEN Unipetrol Transport last year? Our readers would certainly be interested, for example, in how many kilometres your vehicles covered and what volumes they transported in total.
Last year was a successful one for us despite the ubiquitous coronavirus pandemic. We were able to cope with several adverse external influences and, thanks to synergies with our parent company ORLEN, the largest company in Central and Eastern Europe, we transported a total of 3 166 209 tonnes of products, a year-on-year increase of 20%. The key performance indicator, which includes the distance travelled, increased by 15% to 1 604 350 480 gross kilometres.
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