Page 254 - 360.revista de Alta Velocidad - Nº 5

Jiménez, Pablo Lorenzo. Zamorano, Clara Isabel. Escobar, Adrián. Escobar, Jorge.

1. Introduction

Since the beginning of the 1990s, European railway legislation has sought to revitalize the sector
by separating the functions of provision of transport services and infrastructure management.
An essential aspect of this separation is to correctly regulate the relations between the
two functions, ensuring equitable and non-discriminatory access for undertakings wishing to
provide their services on railway infrastructure. Access to the infrastructure and services of
the infrastructure manager must be paid by the levying of charges.
The regulation of these charges is a very important aspect of European railway legislation.
Section 2 of Chapter IV of Directive 2012/34/EU (Recast) deals with fees and the principles
to be followed in setting, applying and charging them. One of these principles, set in article
31.3, states that "the charges for the minimum access package and for access to infrastructure
connecting service facilities shall be set at the cost that is directly incurred as a result of
operating the train service"

The determination of the direct costs is a difficult aspect, since it is a matter of discerning
which part of the costs incurred by the administrator in his activity is reportable to each
circulation. One of the main costs is due to the maintenance of infrastructure, which is one
of the fundamental functions of the managers, as set out in Article 7 of Directive 2012/34 /
EU, as amended by Directive 2016 / 2370.

The Rail Sector Law (Law 38/2015) reflects the Recast Directive, and in fact, the PITVI 2012-
2024 establishes three major action programs. One of them is the regulation, control and
supervision program. Within this, one of the points is the modification of the system of
charges, as a consequence of the application of the Recast, explicitly stating that "for the
Conventional network, the charge per use will be equivalent to the directly attributable cost
to the operation of the rail service, and for the High-Speed network, whose objective will
be the recovery of costs, the charge will include surcharges based on principles of efficiency,
transparency and nondiscrimination”.

This task is fundamental for the rail system. The rail system, in search of greater speeds in
the transport of passengers, and of greater loads in the transport of goods, needs a high level
of maintenance, to achieve a high-quality infrastructure. Therefore, for a correct pricing of
the charges, it is essential to allocate to each circulation the cost that it entails within the
maintenance.
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the methodology of direct costs, and how it can
be used for the costs stemming from maintaining the railway infrastructure, and, more
specifically, the platform and track. For this, first, we analyse the charges and fees, and the
methodology of direct costs. Next, we deal with rail maintenance. Subsequently, the existing
methodologies for the determination of the direct costs of railway maintenance are analysed.
Finally, a proposal is made to improve these methodologies, based on the condition data of
the different lines.

2. Charges and european directives. Direct costs

2.1 Concept of charges

Charges constitute an important part of the income of railway infrastructure managers. They
cover the operating costs of the infrastructure manager, and, therefore, a high part of the price
paid by the passenger for his ticket is intended for the levying of charges (Fernández Arévalo,
2013). Thus, charges are an important variable for the economic balance of the system.

252 360.revista de alta velocidad