In a press release, the European Commission expresses its concern “about the financial equilibrium of the main Romanian infrastructure manager in the years to come” and stresses that charges for freight trains are among the highest in Europe.
“The rail network incurred significant deficits increasing year on year while larger parts of the network were not maintained in good condition. At the same time, the infrastructure manager lacks the incentives to reduce costs and charges,” the release reads.
EC also points out that the Single European Railway Area Directive requires Member States to ensure the financial equilibrium of the infrastructure manager with effective incentives to reduce costs and charges.
The European Commission refers to the charge for the use of infrastructure, levied by Romania’s state-owned railway company CFR for transport operators, which covers over 90% of the infrastructure manager’s revenues.
“While all main rail corridors of Romania are electrified, diesel pulled trains have to contribute to the financing of electric equipment on the track side at the same level as electric trains,” according to the EC release.
The Commission asks Romania not to impose such charges on diesel trains as the EU directive limits charges to the direct costs of the train service.