La política de pago por uso de infraestructuras en la Unión Europea

Este artículo analiza la evolución de la política de tarificación por uso de infraestructura a los vehículos pesados en la Unión Europea, describe los pasos llevados a cabo para su aplicación, y valora la puesta en marcha de esta medida en diferentes países de Europa. Sobre la base de la experiencia actual, el artículo plantea un conjunto de recomendaciones para que la aplicación de una política de pago por uso de infraestructura sea una medida justa y efica

The effect of the discount rate in highway concessions awarded under the LPVR approach.

Flexible-term highway concessions are becoming quite popular around the world as a means of mitigating the traffic risk ultimately allocated to the concessionaire. The most sophisticated mechanism within flexible-term concession approaches is the Least Present Value of the Revenues (LPVR). This mechanism consists of awarding the concession to the bidder who offers the least present value of the revenues discounted at a discount rate fixed by the government in the contract. Consequently, the concession will come to an end when the present value of the revenues initially requested has been eventually reached. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the effect that the discount rate established by the government in the bidding terms has on the traffic-risk profile ultimately allocated to the concessionaire. To analyse this effect, a mathematical model is developed in order to obtain the results. I found that the lower the discount rate the larger will be the traffic risk allocated to the concessionaire. Moreover, I found that, if a maximum term is established in the contract, the lower the discount rate, the less skewed towards the downside will be the traffic risk profile allocated to the concessionaire

Flexible-Term Highway Concessions. How Can They Work Better?

As the European Union¿s transport policy is developing, the idea of establishing a shared approach to the management of transport flows in particularly environmentally sensitive areas has gained support. This idea was born from the experience gained in the Alpine region, then translated to other transnational mountainous areas (the Pyrenees) and finally expanded to coastal regions and urban areas. This paper reviews how the ¿transport sensitive area¿ (TSA) concept has matured. This is followed by a discussion on the practical use of the concept and the key concepts on both, the identification of a TSA and the policy instruments for transport policy and regulation that could be applied. A practical case-study (the Pyrenees region) serves to illustrate the effectiveness, barriers and further developments needed. It is concluded that formalizing the concept of TSA would facilitate the institutional cooperation, which is needed to intervene in regions where several Authorities are involved. Furthermore, a comprehensive approach to mobility within/ through those areas seems to be necessary in order to avoid unexpected results. However, the extension of the concept to other contexts (particularly urban areas) seems to duplicate already existing instruments of coordination, and thus introduce further confusion in an already over-regulated environment. Modeling may greatly facilitate the complex decision-taking process involving multiple local, regional and national authorities, and facilitate consensus on a long term vision, thus mobilizing resources to develop alternative, environmentally-friendly infrastructure (in this case, a new rail crossing)

Subordinated Public Participation Loans for Financing Motorway concessions in Spain.

Budgetary constraints are prompting many governments to encourage private financing of transportation infrastructure through concession contracts. The length and complexity of such contracts often force governments to provide fiscal support in order to increase the attractiveness of concessions. This paper deals with a new public support mechanism for concession contracts, called Subordinated Public Participation Loans (SPPLs), which has been implemented in Spain during the last few years. SPPLs are subordinated loans that may be given by the government to the concessionaire if the latter requests them in the tender. SPPLs are defined in such a way that the increase in interest accrued will reflect the traffic level: the larger the traffic the larger will be the SPPL yield. SPPLs have a twofold goal. First, they increase the financial attractiveness, and hence the feasibility, of concessions contracts. And second, they set up a fairer risksharing approach between the public and the private sector. This paper analyzes the implications of SPPLs in motorway concessions by contrasting the theoretical analysis with the empirical results obtained form the tender of five motorway concessions in Spain. Overall we found that the implementation of this mechanism may be considered a success. In spite of that, we propose some measures that may contribute to improving the SPPL performance in the future

Financing urban transport through value capture.

The Green Paper on Urban Transport highlights the importance of promoting public transport as a means of achieving better sustainable mobility. Unfortunately, budget resources are often constrained. On the other hand, literature points out that transport infrastructure induce economic impacts in the areas where they are placed. This effect is caused by the fact that people realize the positive effects of accessibility and want to live or work close to transport stations. Regarding this fact a question arises. Is it possible to capture the value induced by the construction of a new infrastructure facility as an additional financial source? The aim of this paper is to analyze different direct and indirect mechanisms of value capture to fund transport infrastructure

Traffic Risk in toll motorway concessions in Spain: An analysis of the ramp-up period.

This paper analyzes the behaviour of actual traffic versus the traffic declared by the concessionaire in its offer in toll motorway concessions in Spain during the first few years of operation (ramp-up period). We obtain the result that, on average, there is a clear bias towards overestimation though the behaviour of any single concession may not have much to do with the average. In addition, we found that unlike what happens with annual traffic volumes, traffic growth rates are mostly underestimated by concessionaires in the ramp-up period. We explain this trend towards overestimation in the strategic behaviour of the bidders in the tender rather than in systematic modelling errors. The cause of this strategic behaviour lies in the willingness to renegotiate as shown by the government of Spain when actual traffic turns out to be lower than expected

Motorway Concessions in Spain

Spain provides an example of extensive outsourcing by way of the use of concessions for discrete elements of the motorway network. It also provides examples of how the use of models for road provision can alter over time, and how legislation can be enacted that seeks to establish conditions for sharing risk, for protecting the public interest by guaranteeing quality, and for dealing with renegotiation. Since the late 1960s, more than 30 motorway concessions have been granted in Spain. In 2004, the length of the toll motorways already awarded totalled 3 257 kilometres, of which 2 788 were in operation and 470 under construction. The length of free motorways in 2004 was 10 500 kilometres. As Figure A.4 shows, the length of concessioned motorways in Spain is set to expand considerably, based on existing commitments

Criterios de selección de nuevos sistemas de gestión y financiación de la conservación de carreteras

Ante la incapacidad de los presupuestos públicos en muchos países para por una parte financiar de manera adecuada la conservación y explotación de las carreteras y por otra lograr una eficacia lo mayor posible en su gestión algunos de ellos están empezando a poner en marcha nuevos sistemas de gestión y financiación de la conservación y explotación vial. Esta tesis estudia en primer lugar el problema de la falta de recursos dedicados al mantenimiento de las redes de carreteras centrándose principalmente en el caso de España analiza los nuevos mecanismos de gestión y financiación de estos trabajos fijándose especialmente en aquéllos que incorporan la iniciativa privada y da a conocer finalmente las consecuencias económicas de una conservación deficiente. Partiendo de este análisis la tesis propone nuevos mecanismos de gestión y financiación que podrían ser aplicados en un futuro y desarrolla una nueva metodología plasmada en un modelo que evalúa las consecuencias económicas de las opciones planteadas. Este modelo que recoge las variables y criterios más importantes que caracterizan a la gestión y financiación de las carreteras se fundamenta en calcular los beneficios globales actualizados de una determinada política de conservación "caso de estudio" frente a una política conservación deficiente denominada "caso base". Finalmente se lleva a cabo la aplicación del modelo a un ejemplo concreto que da como resultado unas curvas que muestran la evolución de los beneficios totales desglosados en beneficios para los usuarios, resultado para la administración y beneficios sociales en función por una parte del sistema de financiación aplicado y su capacidad de lograr los recursos necesarios y por otra del rendimiento del sistema de gestión considerad

Estrategias para utilizar los beneficios generados por las infraestructuras como medio para su financiación.

La UE a través del Libro Verde de Transporte Urbano busca incentivar el transporte público como medio para mejorar la movilidad tanto urbana como suburbana, y hacerla más sostenible. Sugiere además que el transporte público debe contar con un nivel aceptable de calidad, eficiencia y seguridad. Promover estos servicios requiere de una gran inversión, por lo que se necesita contar con nuevos mecanismos de financiación. Las infraestructuras de transporte provocan diferentes impactos económicos en su zona de influencia, afectando al precio de viviendas, oficinas y comercios. Si esta plusvalía existe, la pregunta es cómo recolectar parte de estos beneficios a fin de contar con una fuente adicional de financiación. El objetivo de este artículo es analizar los diferentes mecanismos, directos e indirectos, de financiación de las infraestructuras de transporte a través de los beneficios inducidos por las infraestructuras en el territorio. Para ello se presentan un conjunto de propuestas tomando en cuenta la aceptabilidad social, la factibilidad y facilidad para recaudar dinero

Implantación de nuevos sistemas electrónicos de cobro de peaje en España

El sistema de cobro de peaje de las principales autopistas españolas únicamente posibilita que los usuarios realicen el pago de la tarifa del peaje, en el mejor de los casos ralentizando la marcha de sus vehículos, u obligándoles a parar en las playas de peaje. Este artículo hace un recorrido de los distintos sistemas de cobro de peaje existentes, analizando la perspectiva técnica y legal. Como consecuencia, se realizan una serie de recomendaciones que posibiliten la implantación del free flow como sistema de cobro electrónico de peaje referente en España; aprovechando las ventajas que este novedoso sistema ofrece