Track Access Charge Control in the Railway Sector, Its Interaction with Specific Financing Structures and the Determination of Incentives - The German Infrastructure Manager DB Netz AG

The contribution explains the financing system of the German railway sector. Market players like infrastructure managers, railway undertakings, the federal and the regional level ("Lander") and the Bundesnetzagentur are interrelated due to the institutional setting, especially due to the control- and supervision duties of Bundesnetzagentur. This also concerns the financial flows related interconnections of market players and the government level. Bundesnetzagentur is under the new rail regulation law in charge of controlling the charging system of infrastructure managers. The new legal framework allows for the first time an incentive regulation related to infrastructure charges and sets incentives for the infrastructure manager to decrease costs and increase the traffic on the network.