Rail Charging and Accounting Schemes in Europe: Case studies from six countries

Infrastructure charges can account for a significant part of the costs of a railway operator. Directive 2001/14/EC provides a general framework for setting rail infrastructure charges for the use of domestic and international services. The situation today relating to charging systems in Europe can be characterised by the variety of systems in application. This has led the European Commission to develop the RailCalc project, with the aim to develop a best practice guide to verify compliance of rail infrastructure charges within the rules of the directive and to analyse the way infrastructure charges are calculated in Member States. The aim of this booklet (jointly published by CER and EIM) is to supplement and expand on the work done by the Commission, by means of presenting real case studies from six European countries: Belgium (Infrabel), France (RFF), Germany (DB Netz), Great Britain (Network Rail), Hungary (MAV Co.) and Latvia (LDz). These case studies are an interesting representation of the existing situation in the European railway sector. The booklet focuses on the principles of the access charges applied in each presented case study, not only providing an overview, but also showing the link to the operating environment for which they apply. The related accounting systems are also included.