The sixth meeting of the access charges team (official name: Team for unit rates of charges for access to and use of railway infrastructure) was attended by several social organisations. In the meeting participated the representatives of the Economic Chamber of Land Transport (Izba Gospodarcza Transportu Lądowego), the Association of Rail Transport Experts and Managers (Stowarzyszenie Ekspertów i Menedżerów Transportu Szynowego), the Pro Kolej Foundation, the Team of Economic Advisers TOR (Zespół Doradców Gospodarczych TOR), the Union of Independent Railway Carriers (Związek Niezależnych Przewoźników Kolejowych), the Trade Union of Train Drivers in Poland (Związek Zawodowy Maszynistów Kolejowych w Polsce), the Union of Local Government Railway Carriers (Związek Samorządowy Przewoźników Kolejowych)and the Institute of Civil Affairs (Instytut Spraw Obywatelskich).
The meeting was dedicated to the issues affecting the rail transport sector that social organisations currently consider important and the problems they perceive. During the discussion, several proposals for different ways of solving these problems were presented.
Participants discussed the problem of non-investment factors which could stimulate the development of railways in Poland. In particular, the role of regulation was emphasised as an important factor in increasing the role of railways in passenger and freight transport.
With regard to the topic of costs of access to railway infrastructure, a discussion was held on the objectives to be met by a preferred model of railway infrastructure access charging (access charges policy objectives). Moreover, other issues were addressed:
- ensuring that access charges to railway infrastructure are competitive enough to enable modal shift,
- rewarding the infrastructure manager for efficiency gains due to an increase in workload on the network,
- transparency of the infrastructure manager's costs and calculation of charges,
- evaluation of the current system of calculating charges.
The Team for unit rates of charges for access to and use of railway infrastructure was appointed by the President of the Office of Rail Transport in order to find system solutions stimulating development of rail transport in Poland.