Joachim Kroll is acting Secretary General of RNE since June 2004.
RNE: RailNetEurope just completed its 20th year of existence. How do you see this anniversary year in the retrospective?
Joachim Kroll: It was a great opportunity to reflect on the past, but also to set the gaze on things that are going to happen in the future.
We celebrated this milestone with a number of very nice activities and events, both for our members and business partners but also the Joint Office.
My personal highlight was the Anniversary Event in December, where I had the chance to see some long-time companions again; it felt like a family reunion.
RNE: As to reflecting on the past, can you please share some impressions from the time you started at RNE in 2004?
Joachim Kroll: I was contacted in early 2004 by the HR Department of the Infrastructure Manager of DB Netz (today DBInfraGo AG), asking me if I would be interested in applying for the position of Secretary General of RNE.
Following a number of assessments, I was elected for this position and started officially on June 1st, 2004.
In the beginning, the Joint Office was a quite small team with a total of 4-5 employees. Still, we had to steer 7 Working Groups and had just taken over the Pathfinder System (now PCS) from Forum Train Europe. This meant we all had to be pretty much allrounders at this time.
RNE: What experience did you bring into this position?
Joachim Kroll: After studying business economics, I started working in Corporate Development at Deutsche Bahn in 1994. Following various positions within the DB Group I became Head of Market Development at DB Netz. In this context I specialised in the FreeFloat Project, which dealt with optimisation and automatisation of capacity and traffic management. Here, I had the opportunity to gain lots of technical experience, which helped me in my work at RNE.
RNE: Indeed, the FreeFloat Project sounds a little bit similar to the RNE TTR (Timetable Redesign) approach.
Joachim Kroll: Exactly. It is a little bit alarming that it took so long to get there, however we managed to do so with a solid European approach instead of a national isolated solution. And TTR can be seen only as the beginning.
There is still lots of potential in increasing efficiency in operations; for example the smart steering of trains, once the trains approach knots and bottlenecks of the network. Here is where an efficient usage of capacity is most crucial.
RNE: Working for over 20 years at RNE; have you never become bored of what you are doing?
Joachim Kroll: Curiously enough, I have been asked this question many times; especially by friends, who changed their job every few years. I was in the lucky position that my job activities permanently evolved which continuously challenged me with new and interesting tasks.
In addition, I had – and am still having – the privilege to work with great people; May it be the various RNE Presidents, GA and MB members, and of course the colleagues at the Joint Office. For me, just as in life, having good social relationships in my life and in my job is fundamental.
Finally, the fact that the Members have re-elected me repeatedly was always a major motivating factor and can also be seen as a sign that I am not doing my job too badly. As a consequence, for me the temptation to change to another job has never overpowered the joy I felt for my job at RNE.
RNE: You just mentioned the various Presidents. How many Presidents are we talking about and have there been big differences between them?
Joachim Kroll: So far, I worked with 5 Presidents, which also means 5 different personalities.
However, they all have in common that they are/were sharing the European vision and that they are/were remarkable characters, all with their individual strengths. I think RNE was very lucky to always have the right President at the right period of time.
RNE: This all sounds very much like RNE is a happy world. Have there been any negative times as well?
Joachim Kroll: Although rarely, yes, of course. This is natural, however, and often provides great opportunities to grow and learn. I personally have always preferred to focus on the good times.
RNE: Still, please let me insist. Can you also address some topics, where things did not work as well?
Joachim Kroll: If you insist; of course we have had challenging times at RNE as well.
What is still very present for me is the sudden passing of our first President Nicola Mandarino, which deeply touched many of us.
Another incident worth mentioning was when an explosion occurred in the building, where our former Joint Office was located. Criminals had been blackmailing the restaurant, which was located on the ground floor of the building. We were just lucky that this has happened one hour before work started.
A more recent chapter was the invention of a European Rail International Capacity Allocation body (ERICA) in the Parliament’s proposal of the Capacity Regulation. The fact that only at the very last minute some MEPs were open to learn about the work of RNE and consequently adapted the initial proposal shows that even after 20 years of intense work RNE is not as well known as it probably should be.
RNE: Now to conclude; what is your wish for RNE in the future?
Joachim Kroll: I wish that RNE can continue its path with the backing of its Members and of course the support of the European Commission, which has always been a reliable partner, not just from a funding perspective.
Furthermore, I wish that the Members and business partners will jointly move forward in the right direction and in a constructive manner, with willingness to compromise in order to progress together.
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