Link: https://www.railfreight.com/business/2025/05/07/romanias-growing-rail-fees-backfire-on-infrastructure-manager/

Romania’s growing rail fees backfire on infrastructure manager

Romania’s rail freight sector has lost 20% of its traffic over the course of the past three years. A big part of the problem concerns growing track access charges to boost the infrastructure manager’s income. Yet, it seems to have had the opposite effect.

The rail freight decline follows from a study conducted by Romania’s private rail association OPSFPR. Its president, Simona Istrate, warns that the decline risks becoming irreversible in the absence of rapid and strategic interventions. The association attributes the decline primarily to ever-growing track access charges (TAC), infrastructure disruptions and a subsequent reverse modal shift.

TACs are the protagonist in this case. They grew by 8% in 2023 and another 15% in 2024 in Romania. Other service fees, such as shunting and parking, rose by up to 65% on 1 April 2025. In other words, the average rail operator could be paying 33,000 euros per month in fees in 2025, as opposed to 20,000 euros in 2024.

These hikes seem to have backfired on the infrastructure manager, CFR. It saw its March 2025 revenues from track access charges drop by more than 1,3 million euros compared to March 2023. The conclusion is that there is no long-term gain, even if short-term revenue grows, writes Romanian publication Club Feroviar.