According to initial experiences with the HGV-toll in Germany, the system is reported to
work reliably, and has a high rate of compliance (Ruidisch et al., 2005) Results of an analysis
of the diversion impacts have not been available at the time of this report.
One major criticism of the German system is its high operating costs. Furthermore, although
one of the basic demands of the “Pällmann”-Commission was to earmark the revenues from
the HGV toll on motorways for infrastructure investments into the motorways, the federal
government decided to take a multi-modal view and earmark the net revenues for transport
infrastructure improvements with the larger share to be used for the road networks. It is fully
transferred to the VFIG via the federal public budget.
A third source of funds for road infrastructure investments are the two PPP schemes: the so-
called F- and A-models. The F-model is intended to allow private investments in special
infrastructure sections such as tunnels and bridges. It foresees that construction, maintenance
and operation plus financing are carried out through a private operator, whose sources of
remuneration are direct tolls. Subsidies can be granted up to 20% of the building costs. From
10 projects listed as potential candidates, only one F-model project has been realised (so far
financially unsuccessful), a second one is close to completion, and four more are in the
planning process.
The A-model has been developed to facilitate private investments into the
extension of motorways from 4 to 6 lanes, where the construction, maintenance, operation and
financing is provided by the private operator who in turn is rewarded revenues from the
HGV-motorway toll as a shadow toll. Since the expectation is that about half of the costs can
be recovered through revenues, a subsidy of up to 50% for the construction costs can be
granted.
Five of these projects are currently in the tendering process. One of the major
responsibilities of the new VIFG is to take over responsibilities in the preparation and
execution of these PPP projects. Overall, there is little experience of these models as yet and
hence they cannot be fully evaluated. However, it is expected that both kinds of models have
only very limited potential for generating additional funding for road infrastructure in
Germany (see e.g. Beckers et al., 2005, Rothengatter, 2005b).
EU Forecast
euf:ba18f:15/nws-01