Track Access Charges in European Union Adriaan Roest Crollius Zoetermeer, 16 September 2015 The responsibility for the contents of this report lies with Panteia. Quoting numbers or text in papers, essays and books is permitted only when the source is clearly mentioned. No part of this publication may be copied and/or published in any form or by any means, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior written permission of Panteia. Panteia does not accept responsibility for printing errors and/or other imperfections.

Track Access Charges is an instrument to achieve strategic goals and to finance the railway sector Level of Track Access Charges has direct influence on the competitiveness of the railway sector Track Access Charges regime should reflect the major goals and major problems of the sector What are Track Access Charges?

Why European Policy on Track Access Charges Promote rail transport Improve the quality of the network Guarantee reliable paths Promote new services (passenger and freight) Create competitive rail corridors in particular for freight Avoid cross subsidisation Reflect the higher wear and tear of heavy trains Optimise use of the network Lower the burden of the tax payer Better integration into ONE European Union transport market

Minimum access package (Directive 2012/34/EU) Handling of requests for railway infrastructure capacity; Use of the railway infrastructure, including track points and junctions; Train control including signalling, regulation, dispatching and the communication and provision of information on train movement; Use of electrical supply equipment for traction current, where available; All other information required to implement or operate the service for which capacity has been granted

Direct cost approach according to Directive 2012/34/EU Only the minimum access package has to be calculated on a direct cost approach (art. 31 (3)) The minimum access package is one part of the total incomes of the infrastructure manager but profit is earned by providing other services than the minimum access package Direct costs  are defined as direct costs on a network wide basis,  shall be calculated at the difference between, on the one hand, the full costs for providing the services of the minimum access package and for the access to the infrastructure connecting service facilities and, on the other hand, the non-eligible costs.  shall be based on the historical values of assets or, where such values are not available, actual values. Transparent cost calculation system is highly essential for the definition of the TACs

Methodological process of Track Access Charges

Findings from countries within the European Union Mixture of train and gross- tonne kilometres All systems have a different type of segmentation All systems work with mark-ups and incentives Discounts for new products

Lessons learnt from various European Union countries The simpler the charging system is, the more acceptable it is to its customers and for new entrants; The simpler the system is, the more transparent it is; Complex systems contain a high degree of potential for discrimination. Every modification, every coefficient has to be explained and proven to the regulatory body in order to make clear why this coefficient has this or that specific amount; A simple system needs, most importantly, cooperation between the infrastructure manager and the Government.

Influence of Track Access Charges in the railway operators cost  For freight: Track access charges are around 20% of the operation costs 20 % increase in TAC is around 1% up to 4 % increase in costs of freight operators. Infrastructure managers could levy this cost increase by implementing green waves, or deleting non-commercial stops - higher average speed

Steps to define an appropriate Track Access Charges regime Collect basic information  What is legislative framework?  What are the political objectives? (To be given by the Government)  What are the objectives of the infrastructure manager?  What are the major challenges of the sector? (service quality, reliability, cost incidents)  What is the financial support of the Government? (Art. 8 and 30(2) of Directive 2012/34/EU)  What is the outline of the business plan? Define specific goals for the charging regime/What do we want to achieve? Develop charging regime