International Conference Highways: costs and regulation in Europe

1. International Conference Highways: costs and regulation in Europe Session B - Regulation and pricing National approaches and Community Framework for Motorway charges in Europe Dr. Chiara Borgnolo – TRT Trasporti e Territorio Srl Università Degli Studi Di Bergamo Bergamo, November 26th- 27th 2004

2. Comparison of toll collection systems Source: DVZ on information collected from ASFINAG, Vienna/Austria, FELA Management AG, Switzerland and Berlin; Toll Collect, Berlin. February 2004. (table downloaded from WWW.toll-collect.de

3. ASECAP Vision and Mission ASECAP is the only European professional association of tolled motorways companies. It gathers and represents 114 organisations that manage more than 20 000 kilometres of toll roads through 14 European countries. ASECAP’ s goals consist in : • Defending the toll system and proving to Europe that it is the most efficient way to finance the construction and the operation of motorways and big road infrastructures • Promoting the image of the toll road sector • Participating to research and experiment programmes to strengthen the efficiency of the networks and to improve the users’ comfort and security • Facilitating and promoting the exchange of information between the ASECAP members: any kind of information concerning the construction and operation of toll motorways, bridges and tunnels • Promoting and organising studies meeting at technical, administrative and financial levels • Collecting technical data and statistics about the European toll networks and providing them to its members and to all interested bodies.

4. ASECAP Vision and Mission An association definitely focused on Europe, playing a leading role in the development of a harmonised Trans-European network, ASECAP wishes to be the privileged partner of the European institutions (the European Commission, the European Parliament) in order to take an active part in the debate on the future of the road transport as well as in the development of a harmonised Trans-European road network. This contribution to the construction of a common transport policy results for instance in the ASECAP members’ participation in the CESARE project, co-financed by the European Commission and whose aim is to develop a common electronic charging system to all members that could be used by other countries of the European Union. As new charging systems emerge (especially in Germany, the Netherlands and Great Britain), the ASECAP members have to pursue their action and studies on that matter in order to find a way to achieve the interoperability of systems based on different technologies. In this prospect, and to the European Commission’s request, the ASECAP members would like to carry out a complementary research in the framework of the research programme initiated par the European Commission that will continue the CESARE and PISTA projects. ASECAP is an open association and it allows any new member to take part in the studies and to benefit from the experiences of the countries that have been developing a “toll culture”’ for many years. These are, in short, the main aspects that will lead to a harmonised Trans-European road network in which ASECAP is highly involved.

5. Criteria for setting and charging distance based tolls and time based user charges in Directive 1999/62/EC The weighted average toll (art 9) shall be related to the ‘costs of constructing, operating and developing the infrastructure network concerned ; the amount shall be based on distance travelled between two points on the infrastructure and the type of vehicle. Without prejudice to the weighted average tolls, provided that toll is not more than 50% above the toll charged for equivalent vehicles with the strictest emission standard or 100% above the toll charged during the cheapest period of the day, tolls can be varied in accordance to vehicle’ emission standard and period of the day. In either case, fine-tuning of tolls must be ‘proportional’ to the objectives such measures aim to achieve. Time based access charges (including administrative costs) shall not be higher than maximum rates the Directive establishes for two classes of vehicles (up to 3 axes and above) and three ‘EURO’ classes to differentiate ‘emissions of gaseous and particulate pollutants from diesel engines’. User charges rates shall be in proportion to the duration of the use made of the infrastructure (year, month, week or day). A member state may provide that vehicles registered in the member state shall be subject to user charges for the use of the whole network in its territory; it may also apply only annual rates for domestic vehicles.

6. Key ETP2010 criteria to combine internalisation of transport costs with environmentally friendly investment Transparency. Transport users are entitled to know what they are paying for and why. They should pay for quantifiable components of transport costs arising from the use, the quality and the safety of the infrastructure. A balance between costs and charges will require a price structure that reflects costs to the community quantified in monetary terms. The following cost components art listed Building and operating infrastructure; congestion; noise; accidents; air pollution; greenhouse effect. Fiscal neutrality. Even if a global increase in transport prices may be on the carts, it is assumed that the main change will be in price structure to reflect the full social cost of transport. In the absence of a net increase in taxation (including charges) in the economy as a whole, increase in infrastructure charges will be offset by lowering existing taxes or by allocating revenue to the financing of infrastructure.

7. National and local policies to complement ETP 2010 • Economic policy to be formulated to take account of factors which contribute to increasing demand for transport services, particularly factors connected with the just-in-time production model and stock rotation; • urban and land-use planning policy to avoid unnecessary increases in the need for mobility caused by unbalanced planning of the distances between home and work; • social and education policy, with better organisation of working patterns and school hours to avoid overcrowding roads, particularly by traffic departing and returning at weekends, when the greatest number of road accidents occur; • urban transport policy in major conurbations, to strike a balance between modernisation of public services and more rational use of the car, since compliance with international commitments to curb CO2 emissions will be decided in the cities and on the roads; • budget and fiscal policy to achieve full internalisation of external costs – in particular environmental – and completion of a trans-European network worthy of the name; • competition policy to ensure that opening-up of the market, especially in the rail sector, is not held back by dominant companies already operating on the market and does not translate into poorer quality public services.

8. National and local policies to complement ETP2010 Variety Each national or regional government will continue to be responsible for decisions concerning Transport investment and decisions on how to fund it by combining general taxation/user charges/earmarking of toll revenue within motorway concession/project financing schemes: • which road links should be subject to distance based charges, whether infrastructure charges should be extended also to cars/light vehicles, whether higher unit rates should be charged on congested corridors/period of the day or on environmentally sensitive areas. • determining/approving level and structure of distance based charges accordingly.

9. National and local policies to complement ETP2010 Transparency Unit value of different cost components charged on road sections equipped for EFC will be published Details will be recorded in the bills issued for the use of any given road section. Bills issued by operators of IRPS will be similar to those issued by those of phone operators.(Eg: Section A to B: 70 km. Month-day in which the trip is made. Time period (hour and minutes) in which the trip between A and B was undertaken. Unit rates (euro per Km) charged for different cost components : a) maintenance b) surcharge for investment; c) surcharge for peak hour/congestion, b) surcharge for environmentally sustainable investment/measures.