Regulation on Railway Infrastructure Access Services

Regulation on Railway Infrastructure Access Services: Railway train operators who have received a valid transport authorization certificate will establish a safety management system and receive a safety certificate from the Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications before applying for infrastructure capacity allocation.

The “Railway Infrastructure Access and Capacity Allocation Regulation” of the Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications was published in the Official Gazette and entered into force.

The regulation aimed to provide access to the national railway infrastructure network in a free, fair, transparent and sustainable competitive environment, to determine the railway infrastructure access fees and to regulate the principles and procedures to be applied for the allocation of railway infrastructure capacity.

According to the regulation, railway train operators who have received a valid transport authorization certificate will establish the safety management system defined under the relevant national legislation before applying for infrastructure capacity allocation and receive a safety certificate from the Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications.

Railway infrastructure operators will be able to cooperate with other railway infrastructure operators to ensure the efficient execution of international freight and passenger transport services across multiple infrastructure networks. Operators will ensure the efficient use of the national railway infrastructure network and the creation of a competitive environment in railway transport. Operators will ensure that the infrastructure access fee tariff in place is based on the same principles across all of their networks.

All necessary information will be prepared by railway infrastructure operators and published in the annual network notification in order to ensure that railway train operators have access to railway infrastructure in a free, fair, transparent and sustainable competitive environment and enable them to exercise their access rights. The network notification will set out the technical characteristics of the railway infrastructure network accessible to railway train operators.

Railway infrastructure operators will apply an equivalent, non-discriminatory fare schedule for different railway train operators performing the same services on a similar part of the network and ensure that the fees applied comply with the rules specified in the network notification. The remuneration system will be designed to support the increase in productivity of railway train operators. After the publication of the network notification, fee increase and discount will not be made within the period.

The Ministry, in the scope of the regulation of the wages in the market related to the activities of the country's economy or the public interest against the results, excessive wages, in cases of deterioration of the competition environment and if necessary for a limited period of time for these activities may introduce a base or ceiling tariff.

Applications for infrastructure capacity allocation will be made by railway train operators who wish to use infrastructure capacity. The infrastructure capacity allocated to a railway train operator cannot be made available to other railway train operators by the railway infrastructure operators. The allocated infrastructure capacity cannot be purchased, sold, leased or otherwise transferred among railway train operators in any way.