EUROPEAN COMPANY FOR THE FINANCING OF RAILWAY ROLLING STOCK (EUROFIMA)

Abstract

This chapter describes the European Company for the Financing of Railway Rolling Stock (EUROFIMA). The Convention for the creation of the EUROFIMA was signed on October 20, 1955 by 14 states and two further states subsequently became parties. Its object was to permit its members, who serve the whole of continental Europe except Finland, Albania, and the members of the Warsaw Treaty Organization, to modernize their rolling stock, and particularly their fleets of freight cars, with a view to through-running among the different national systems. This was a particularly pressing problem in the middle 1950s because of the rapid growth of long-distance road haulage with which Europe's antiquated and war-ravaged railways were hardly in a position to compete. The Statutes of the Company provide that EUROFIMA is established for a period of 50 years, for the purpose of obtaining rolling stock of standard type or performance for its shareholders, as well as for other railway administrations.