Lusa - Business News - Portugal: Abolishing shadow tolls on some roads penalises railways - operators

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Lusa - Business News - Portugal: Abolishing shadow tolls on some roads penalises railways - operators

Lisbon, May 3, 2024 (Lusa) - The Portuguese Association of Railway Companies (APEF) on Friday regretted parliament's decision to abolish tolls on ex-SCUTs, (shadow toll roads) considering that it penalises the railway, and demanded equitable measures.
"This decision strongly penalises the railway and demonstrates, once again, the lack of strategic vision of political decision-makers for the transport sector, allowing a measure of this scope to be approved without thinking about the impact it will have on mobility and environmental sustainability," the APEF said in a statement.
The association also called for fair measures to be adopted "to compensate rail transport for the loss of competitiveness compared to roads, particularly with regard to the infrastructure use charge".
This year, the rail infrastructure charge was increased by 23%, recalled APEF.
"By allowing these two measures to go ahead, we can conclude that the parties represented in the Portuguese Parliament have decided to bet on the motorway and, once again, discriminate against the railway, damaging the sector and all its stakeholders, despite the millions of euros that have been invested in railway infrastructure," the association pointed out.
For APEF's executive director, Miguel Rebelo de Sousa, "it is incomprehensible that such an isolated decision has been taken without thinking about measures that would allow for a balance of treatment between modes of transport, further damaging the most sustainable mode of transport".
He emphasised that, in this way, rail transport will not be able to compete with road transport.
"I fear that the millions of euros that have been invested and will continue to be invested in the railway network will be wasted, because we run the risk of not having freight trains or even passenger trains running because of measures like this," he added.
APEF's members are the freight railway companies Medway, Takargo and Captrain.
According to the Observador online newspaper, Infraestruturas de Portugal (IP) also expects to be compensated for the loss of revenue with the end of tolls on the ex-SCUTs in the interior region and Algarve from 2025, since, according to an official source at the public company which manages the country's road and rail infrastructures, "any measures that induce permanent losses of revenue affect the economic and financial model of IP's concession contract, signed in 2007 for a period of 75 years".
On Thursday, parliament approved at first reading the PS bill to eliminate tolls on the ex-SCUT with the votes in favour of the Socialists, Chega, BE, PCP, Livre and PAN.
In the votes on this bill, PSD and CDS-PP voted against and IL abstained.
After a tense debate and many exchanges of accusations, the PS initiative to eliminate tolls on sections and sub-sections of motorways in the interior (ex-SCUTs) or where there are no alternative routes that allow safe and high-quality use, was finally approved.
The PS proposal aims to end tolls on the A4 - Transmontana and Túnel do Marão, A13 and A13-1 -Pinhal Interior, A22 - Algarve, A23 - Beira Interior, A24 - Interior Norte, A25 - Beiras Litoral and Alta and A28 - Minho on the sections between Esposende and Antas and between Neiva and Darque.
SCUT tolls (short for Tolls Without Charging Users or Tolls Without Cost to the User) is a motorway and expressway financing model implemented in Portugal, based on the British shadow toll model. In this model, responsibility for the construction, operation and maintenance of a motorway is concessioned to a private company for a period of a few decades (usually 30 years). In return, the company receives a variable income from the grantor (in principle, the Portuguese state) depending on the number of vehicles using the road and the number of days it is operational. It is therefore a virtual toll system, since the concessionaire's income depends on the number of vehicles using the road, but the amount is paid by the grantor, so the road is free to use.
MPE/AYLS // JNM/AYLS
Lusa

Agency : LUSA
Date : 2024-05-04 11:25:00

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