The Railways (Access, Management and Licensing of Railway Undertakings) Regulations 2016

Principles of access charging

1.—(1) The infrastructure manager must ensure that the application of the charging scheme—

(a) complies with the rules set out in the network statement produced in accordance with regulation 13; and

(b) results in equivalent and non-discriminatory charges for different railway undertakings that perform services of an equivalent nature in a similar part of the market.

(2) The calculation of the charge may in particular take into account the mileage, composition of the train and any specific requirements in terms of such factors as speed, axle load and the degree or period of utilisation of the railway infrastructure.

(3) Except where specific arrangements are made in accordance with paragraph 3, the infrastructure manager must ensure that the charging system in use is based on the same principles over the whole of the network.

(4) Without prejudice to sub-paragraph (8) the charges for the minimum access package and track access to service facilities referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 of Schedule 2 must be set at the cost that is directly incurred as a result of operating the train service.

(5) From 2nd August 2019 or earlier, the infrastructure manager must calculate the cost under sub-paragraph (4) or, as the case may be, under the first paragraph of Article 4 of the Channel Tunnel charging framework, in accordance with Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/909 of 12th June 2015 on the modalities for the calculation of the cost that is directly incurred as a result of operating the train service(1).

(6) The charge imposed for track access within service facilities referred to in paragraph 2 of Schedule 2 and the supply of services in such service facilities must not exceed the cost of providing it, plus a reasonable profit.

(7) If the additional or ancillary services referred to in paragraphs 3 and 4 of Schedule 2 are offered by only one supplier the charge imposed for the supply of those services must not exceed the cost of providing the service, plus a reasonable profit.

(8) The infrastructure charge may include a charge to reflect the scarcity of capacity of the identifiable segment of the infrastructure during periods of congestion.

(9) The charges referred to in sub-paragraphs (4) and (8) may be averaged over a reasonable spread of train services and times, but the relative magnitudes of the railway infrastructure charges must be related to the costs attributable to the services.

(1)

O.J. No. L 148, 13.06.15, p.17.