The reform of the Swiss track access charge system is an important point for the marketability of combined transport. This system – unique in Europe! – places several times the burden on freight transport in comparison to passenger transport, because the charge calculation takes the train weight as the principal criterion. At the same time, freight trains have the last priority in the network, which leads to high costs due to unproductive waiting times for the rolling stock and staff.
By 2010 the current track access subsidies, which make up for this bias on the rail side, are to be completely abolished and transferred to the operators according to new calculation principles. “A problematical mechanism,” said Hans-Jörg Bertschi, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Hupac Ltd. “Instead of reorganising the system and introducing a fair, source-based track tariff system, first the railways charge the operators disproportionately high track tariffs, then these are partially lowered by the public authorities due to criteria unrelated to production.” The consequences would be a lack of calculability and price increases.
Hupac advocates a track access charge system that promotes incentive, takes the actual usage of the rail infrastructure into account and optimises the use of the available capacity reserves through incentives. Possible criteria for the differentiation of access charges might be the action period of the line (very slow or very fast trains use more track capacity and pay more), demand (surcharges for peak periods, discounts for off-peak hours), the priority in the network (low prices to compensate for low priority), transport efficiency (incentives to make trains as long and heavy as possible) or timekeeping (incentives for punctuality).
