Henning Scheel is executive director of the Customer and Market division at Bane NOR. – Today there is a lot of traffic on large parts of the railway network. It wears down the infrastructure, which must be maintained and renewed. The alternative is that the sections get worse year by year. It is not positive for anyone, neither passengers, the train companies nor the freight owners. Several of the railway’s single-track sections are bursting with capacity. Both passenger trains run here and we have a lot of traffic from freight carriers. Nordlandsbanen is among these. – The carriers are subsidized and pay far below the market price for the use of the country’s infrastructure. This will continue to be the case after this tax increase, and probably for many years to come. – We think it is great that Rana Gruber wants to become the world’s first producer of CO2-free iron ore. As the owner of the climate-friendly, area- and energy-saving railway, Bane NOR applauds everyone who wants to contribute to emissions reductions. However, that has nothing to do with this tax increase. For a large percentage increase notwithstanding – the amount is very moderate. The large percentage increase is also due to the fact that fees have previously been at a very low level. – We therefore believe that our customers must contribute and pay somewhat more for the wear and tear they inflict on the railway network, and push less of the maintenance bill onto the taxpayers. – This is a fee according to the railway regulations, but to the same extent a payment for the services that our customers use from us. – If we get less for maintenance from the train companies, we will have to get bigger transfers from the state to do the work. The alternative is for us to carry out less maintenance, so that the sections get worse every year. This will lead to more delays and canceled departures. When asked why the fees are increasing so much for Rana Gruber in particular, Bane Nor replies that it is due to three factors. 1. End of geographical differentiation: In the past, companies have had to pay more to drive on sections in good condition than on sections in less good condition. This is because they get a better product. It has therefore cost a little more to use Ofotbanen than Nordlandsbanen, because Ofotbanen is in better condition than Nordlandsbanen. This is called geographical differentiation, and the Norwegian Railway Authority has asked us to stop doing it, because they believe it is against the regulations. Rana Gruber will still pay less than iron ore producers on the Ofot railway, but the difference will be slightly smaller if this fee change is introduced. 2. Phasing out of discount on Nordlandsbanen: Previously, Nordlandsbanen was underutilized and had a lot of spare capacity. Then it was natural to have a discount to encourage more freight companies to transport their goods climate-friendly on the railway, instead of on the roads. Nordlandsbanen has now exceeded capacity, and it is therefore necessary to remove this discount, which was supposed to be temporary and time-limited. However, we do not plan to remove the entire discount overnight, but rather phase it out over time. 3. More money is spent on maintenance than before. Most train companies are therefore experiencing increased fees in the form of an increased basic price. However, none of them will pay what operating the infrastructure actually costs. That bill essentially takes the taxpayers through government grants. SJT believes that Bane Nor is based on a wrong understanding of the market’s tolerance. Comment on that? – We disagree, and think it is a misunderstanding. We are in dialogue with the Norwegian Railway Inspectorate and the Ministry of Transport about this. Slightly simplified, the misunderstanding is due to the concept of “market resilience” involving two elements. One is what our customers can afford to pay, the other is about price elasticity, i.e. how much demand is affected by the price. The supervisory authority believed that we had only assessed the ability to pay and not the price elasticity. We have replied to the supervisory authority that we have considered both parts. Bane NOR then came to the following conclusion: – In the iron ore segment, our customers’ ability to pay is unproblematic. The state subsidizes their lease of the railway, and they have a very good income. – Price elasticity is low. We believe that the proposed fee increase will have little effect on demand. We have had to say no to several people who want to transport goods on the Nordlandsbanen, because the capacity is full, writes Bane Nor to news.
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Rana Gruber reacts to high fees from Bane Nor – news Nordland
