The establishment of a joint strategy concerning the infrastructure access charge on the corridors exclusively dedicated to the transport of freight should be a topic on the agenda of infrastructure managers. Moreover, a joint strategy aimed at reducing the track access charge at cross-border or cross-continental level for container transport would be a measure aimed at developing the freight railway transport compared to the other transport modes.
To ensure coherent and continuous infrastructure capacities along freight transport corridors, investments in the respective corridor should be coordinated between the member states and related infrastructure managers, as well as between member states and third European countries and planned so as to answer the needs of the freight transport corridor while keeping the limits of economic viability.
“The level of track access charges depends first of all on the financing level granted by the state to infrastructure managers. Charges vary a lot in the European Union and are exactly in conformity with the cost covering level that member states governments provide.
Consequently, the starting point pertains to the member states governments in order to preserve the conformity with the EU legislation and to make sure the balance sheets of infrastructure managers are balanced and that the railway market can bear the level of railway access charges”, declared at the beginning of the year, Johannes Ludewig, Executive Director of the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER).
These principles are essential for the economic efficiency of the railway sector. If appropriately applied, they could offer support not only in container transport development, but to all railway transport market segments. According to CER’s Executive Director, additional measures, not related to the charging system, can be used to provide specific support in containerisation and for the development of the rail freight transport corridors.
“Transport operators often pay 5 to 25% of their incomes to infrastructure managers. Considering this percentage, track access charges can be an important political instrument in what concerns railway traffic management”, believes Michael Clausecker, UNIFE’s former Director General.
Referring to an improvement of the freight railway and container traffic, but this time at international level, Keir Fitch, responsible for transport at DG MOVE, said in early 2011, that, on the medium term, operators activating on new freight transport corridors, will also benefit from the removal of bottlenecks and harmonisation, parameters related to the infrastructure which makes the rail freight transport on the established corridors to be not only easy to access, but also more efficient.
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