Audible response

DI Transport, Dansk Banegods, Danske Havne and Danske Shipping- og Havnevirksomheder will hereby submit a joint consultation response to the draft executive order on exemption of parts of the scope of the Railway Act for certain railway infrastructure

We would like to draw your attention to the fact that there is still an issue regarding the exemptability of the type of railway infrastructure related to freight transport and the associated rail-related service facilities and the services provided therein.

While both EU Directive 2012/34 and Implementing Regulation 2017/2177 allow certain infrastructures and service providers to be exempted, it is unclear which actors are covered, when - and how the exemptions come into effect.

The ambiguity is reinforced by the fact that in some cases there are private companies that both own the infrastructure and offer service-related services, in other cases there is publicly owned infrastructure but private service providers, and in some cases even public operators of both infrastructure and services.

Not least, there is uncertainty in the industry about the possibility of the authorities being able to intervene in the market - for example, by setting tariffs for the provision of services, cf. section 5 of BEK 1503/2021 on rail-related service facilities.

We find it quite unnecessary to interfere with free pricing and would like to point out once again the highly detrimental effect that such tariffs - or even the possibility of such tariffs via pricing principles - will have on a market that has so far functioned under market conditions.

The few rail-related services that a shipping/port company performs, for example, will often be tied together with ship or warehouse-related services and thus be part of the company's overall services, just as buildings, machinery and equipment are used for many purposes. Therefore, a real cost calculation cannot be calculated.

These requirements can lead to companies leaving the market and make it far less attractive for new players to enter the market.

Article 2(4) of the Directive includes the possibility of exempting infrastructure and facilities that are not of strategic importance to the functioning of the rail market from Chapter IV of the Directive, which is precisely the tariff rules.

We note that since this is European legislation, it must be possible to exempt facilities that do not have a strategic function for the European rail market, and in our view, there are no rail facilities in Danish ports, or many other places in the country, with such a strategic function.

We would therefore encourage the Ministry to consider applying the provision on exemption from Chapter IV of the Directive by exempting all Danish port tracks and terminals as well as smaller cargo transshipment points without strategic importance.

If this executive order is not the right place to implement such an exception, we are open to dialog with the authorities about other options.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

P.v.a.

DI Transport

Danish Rail Freight

Danish Ports

Danish Shipping and Port Companies