The Future of Rail Freight in Europe

Wouter Radstake

Senior VP Land Transport Research, DVB Bank

Biography

Between 1989 and 1995 Wouter Radstake studied Technical Business Administration and Science of Public Administration at the University of Twente, the Netherlands, with the specializations Civil Engineering and Transportation. One thesis covered a set up how to organize the admission procedure for new railway companies in the Netherlands on behalf of ProRail and the Dutch Ministry of Transport. In 1994 Mr. Radstake started his working live as co-owner and managing director of courier company Ritzen Koeriers Twente v.o.f. which used the fact that students got an almost free pass to use the train. But rail forms the thread in his later working life as well. Mr. Radstake was involved in the establishment of Lovers Rail B.V. (1995; the first rail passenger competitor of the Dutch Nederlandse Spoorwegen in the Netherlands since 1917, now part of Veolia Transport), ShortLines B.V. (1995-2001, now part of Veolia Transport) and ERS Railways B.V. (2001-2005, now fully A.P. M¢ller owned). In 2005 and 2006 he was Senior Economist Rail at the Dutch Rail Regulator Nederlandse Mededingingsautoriteit, working on topics of capacity allocation and infrastructure charges.

Since 2006 Mr. Radstake keeps track of market developments which influence the market outlook and values of land transport assets in Europe and North-America in his position as Senior Vice President Land Transport Research at the leading specialized international transport finance bank DVB Bank. This task consists of amongst others independent analysis of the global and regional economy forecasts, transported commodities, rail and road volumes, raw material and fuel prices, fair market values, innovations, development of the European rail liberalization and rolling stock orders. On top of that, some M&A advisory work is done for key clients.

Patrick Rousseaux

Principal Administrator DG TREN, European Commission

Biography

Principal Administrator, Rail Transport and Interoperability Unit

DG Energy and Transport – European Commission

Civil Engineer and Graduate in Economics

After 2 years as Research Assistant at the University of Louvain (Belgium), he worked as computer engineer (several fields and functions) in banks and later at the European Commission.

He has a deep knowledge of liberalisation and regulation of network industries.

Since 1993, he has followed the whole process of liberalisation of electricity markets.   He is has been involved in the economic and legal aspects of the electricity sector in the European Union. He has also been strongly involved in the Cross-border issues of electricity. (Transmission Pricing, Congestion Management).

He has also launched the TransEuropean networks of energy. 

Since June 2006 he has joined the Rail Transport and Interoperability Unit, in charge of freight issues.

He is in charge of the Commission proposal for a European rail network for competitive freight.

He is also desk officer for the Benelux.

Christoph Wolff

Member of the Management Board Region East, DB Schenker

Biography

Dr. Christoph Wolff , member of the Management Board of DB Schenker Rail since May 2007, holds the position of 'Chairman Region East and Network Management'.
Dr. Wolff is responsible for expanding DB Schenker Rail's drive into Central and Eastern Europe. In particular, he is leading the build up of DB Schenker Rail Polska, a 350 Mio EUR operator, holding No 2 position in the Polish market. He also manages fast growing subsidiaries in Romania and Bulgaria.

Having studied engineering in Aachen and Zurich, Wolff joined McKinsey in 1992, becoming director of their German office in 2005. From 2001 he headed McKinsey’s Global sector dealing with railways and shipping, expanding operations into Asia (China, India and Russia).

Wolff previously spent four years in the United States as a Professor of operations management at Northwestern University and Managing Director of a logistics software firm in Chicago.