Despite being one of the countries with the lower track access charges for rail freight in Europe, Spain is implementing a new scheme to supervise the fees adopted by the country’s infrastructure manager Adif. The new plan was recently approved by the Spanish National Market and Competition Commission (CNMC).
If for rail freight the track access charges are not significantly high, for passenger services they are “much higher than the ones calculated by other European infrastructure managers”, the CNMC underlined. However, the scheme will be deployed to check the fees for both the freight and passenger markets. This should ensure that track access charges for freight operators remain low and the ones concerning passenger convoys are in line with other European countries.
The scheme entails a new econometric model, a testing system, and periodical reviews. The need for a new scheme to keep railway fees in check stems from the fact that, for the first time, they were removed from the General State Budget and will be implemented through a specific regulation by Adif. This initiative may also be a consequence of a diatribe between Spain and the European Commission (EC). Back in October, the EC sued Spain for failing to transpose some directives concerning infrastructure management and track access charges in the context of the Single European railway area.
What does the new scheme entail?
The newly developed econometric model, follows international standards to ensure that the estimations made by Adif in calculating track access charges do not distort the market. Moreover, the new plan foresees that the implementation of surcharges needs to be preceded by a market analysis to make sure that the sector can bear the cross. Another novelty found in the new CNMC regulations is the introduction of periodical reviews of the fees and of the profitability of operators that pay for them. The review rounds will check whether the surcharges still leave some room for the profitability of operators.
In addition, the CNMC is introducing two types of tests to monitor the legality of said surcharges. First, a so-called efficiency test will investigate how efficiently these costs are spread across different segments of the market. “Those segments with less price-sensitive demand bear a greater proportion of the costs than those with more price-sensitive demand”, the CNMC explained. The second test will be a market test and will focus on making sure that the surcharges implemented by Adif do not harm these segments, “except in exceptional circumstances such as the one that occurred in the covid-19 pandemic”.
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