InterviewNight trains are making a comeback as a more sustainable long-distance transport. There are however quite some challenges, such as high costs and different standards across countries. “The infrastructure is there, so it should be...Read more
In order to mitigate the effects of the crisis caused by Covid-19 on rail transport, Spain extends the reduced track access charges. This was detailed in one of the amendments to the General State Budgets...Read more
The new German coalition will invest ‘considerably more in the railways than in the roads’. The SPD, Greens and FDP presented their plans in a coalition agreement on Wednesday, which include plans to lower infrastructure...Read more
“We have to reduce track access charges, and especially Germany has a problem with this”, said Oldag Caspar of Germanwatch during a panel discussion at the arrival of the Connecting Europe Express in Berlin. But,...Read more
The French government will invest 170 million euros per year until 2024 in the rail freight industry. Among other measures, half of the track access charges will be subsidised. It wants to double the transport...Read more
The fact that Swedish operator SJ will run a new night train from Stockholm to Hamburg is not seen as fair by everyone. The train, with government subsidy, will run on days that private operator...Read more
Eurostar boss Jacques Damas is calling for an aviation tax, the proceeds of which will be used to reduce the costs to use rail infrastructure. In this way, the price of train tickets can be...Read more
The European Commission has given the green light for 2.5 billion euro state aid of the German government to support the rail sector in the coming years. The money should benefit both passenger and rail...Read more
The current structure of Deutsche Bahn group is not appropriate for the planned increase of capital with 7.5 billion in favour of DB, says the German monopolies commission. It cannot be guaranteed that this will...Read more
The number of Thalys and Eurostar passengers, both of which were recently rescued with loans, were on the rise before the corona crisis hit. There are many opportunities in shifting European air travel to rail,...Read more
Railway associations want to prolong the regulation allowing to waive, reduce or defer track access charges in the face of Covid-19. The regulation would last until the end of June, but they asked for it...Read more
Germany has proposed to continue the reduction of track access charges until the end of 2021. Interestingly, the charges will almost be nullified; from the current 50 per cent reduction it wants to move to...Read more
There are different ways in which countries determine segments on the rail market for infrastructure charging. LatRailNet, the Latvian charging body, organised a webinar on 17 March on railway transportation market segmentation. It was also...Read more
COLUMN – The economic viability of night trains will be insecure if no action is taken on the track access charges. The struggle of Eurostar to keep its head above water showed that high track...Read more
In recent decades, huge investments were done in Europe for the construction of high-speed lines. National networks of thousands of kilometers of track have been built. “Now the only thing left to do is to...Read more
