Romanian Rail Ops To Pay Differentiated Taxes To Use CFR Infrastructure

The current taxes charged by CFR are set at 9 lei (EUR1-RON4.2038) per kilometer for passenger trains and RON14 per kilometer for freight trains.

 

Under the new act, the taxes will be differentiated according to the trains’ tonnage, the distance travelled, the type of the rail used (electrified vs non-electrified, high vs low-speed etc.) and according to the train type (passengers or freight).

 

The measure sparked protests from two rail associations (Romanian Rail Industry Association and the Association of Romanian Rail Transporters, respectively).

 

“Currently, the tax on freight trains is of RON14 per kilometer, a tariff neither small nor big compared to the rest of the Europe. The new calculation increases some of the indicators, bringing the average costs to RON15.5 per kilometer. Our proposition is that the tax remains to RON14, as it was set approximately four year ago,” said Constantin Pestrea, president of the Association of Romanian Rail Transporters.

 

Pestrea estimated that rail operators would pay RON28 per kilometer for a 3,000 tons freight train travelling on the Bucharest-Constanta route – the costliest route in Romania.