European experience of tariff formation in the railway sector of railway transport
The need to improve the pricing methodology for freight rail transportation has been identified. In the field of railway transport, the method of tariff regulation on the basis of economically reasonable costs of the projected income is used for more than 20 years. Cost control is carried out on the basis of multifactor models, which take into account the volume of work and prices in the consumer market, in the industrial sector and in other sectors of the national economy. Linking the long-term tariff policy with indicators of efficiency, reliability and quality in terms of the provision of railway transport services for the carriage of goods can be carried out as part of the development of a mechanism for the application of a network contract in railway transport. It is between the state and the economic entity in railway transport and provides for a long-term investment program, a model of long-term tariff regulation, as well as a target level of service quality and related operational indicators. The network contract acts as a long-term contract concluded between the state and the subjects of managing public rail transport. It fixes the obligations of the parties to ensure the effective functioning of the infrastructure complex and must become a balancing element of the method of return on invested capital. Such a mechanism effectively works in European countries where it has a positive implementation experience. The states - members of the European Community, which have concluded long-term contracts with the management of railway infrastructure, are: Belgium, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Denmark, Ireland, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, France, Switzerland.