Rail infrastructure charging systems for high-speed lines in Europe

Abstract

In the European railway framework, the expenses of rail infrastructure costs are partly covered by the Governments and partly by the infrastructure managers through the infrastructure charges that operators pay to them for running services on the infrastructure they manage. However, the extent to which infrastructure charges cover infrastructure costs is higher for high speed lines (HSL) than for conventional lines. This communication characterises the infrastructure charging systems for HSL implemented in Europe and analyses the level of charges applied to these lines with the aim of quantifying and analyzing the mark-ups above marginal cost that are being charged to high speed services running on the European HSL. The results obtained show that, despite the great differences between charging systems for HSL, important mark-ups above marginal costs are applied by all the systems analysed and that common features between them can be established.