Fears over track access charges

Proposed changes to track access charges could harm the competitiveness of rail operators, Professor Chris Nash (who has advised Network Rail and the European Commission) will warn at a summit in Amsterdam this April.

There are proposals for more passenger operators to pay ‘mark-ups’ on variable costs.

While Nash says that making operators pay more of the costs could incentivise them to work with Network Rail to reduce them, he added: “I believe that a big increase is potentially dangerous and could harm the position of rail in the markets where it is applied.

“That could affect freight, although there would still be an ability to pay test, and it’s really how that test is applied that would determine whether freight faced much higher charges or not.”