INTRODUCTION

In India, rail transportation is growing fast: 13.6% growth in value for freight and 14.6% for passenger transportation over the 2007-2008 financial year.

The saturation of tracks, the considerable congestion in the Golden Quadrilateral connecting India’s four main cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai), the ageing infrastructures and the inadequacy of rolling stock are factors which ultimately limit the development of Indian rail transportation.

This is why many projects are anticipated in private-public partnerships. Hence, there are many business opportunities in the fields of engineering, signalling and telecommunications systems, traction equipment, braking systems, design and manufacture of rail vehicles (fitting-out, single- or double-decker carriages, air conditioning, container wagons) and electrification (today 63% of the freight traffic and 55% of the passenger transportation use electrified lines).

On the European side, the current expansion of the high-speed network and the gradual opening up to competition of passenger and freight traffic are all opportunities for the professionals in the branch. With a European public policy favourable to railways, the European rail transportation should double by 2020.