IMPRINT-NET - IMplementing Pricing Reforms IN Transport - NETworking
Overview
Background & policy context:
There is an EU consensus on the need to introduce and reinforce the principle and the practice of cost-based transport charges. Pricing of transport infrastructure use has been identified, since the Green Paper of 1995 on fair and efficient pricing (EC, 1995), as a pillar of the strategy towards a more sustainable transport system. Much has happened since then over a relatively short period of time, and visible progress has been made both in the scientific area and in the policy making realm. On the policy making side, the Green Paper has been followed by the White Paper of 1998 on the fair payment for infrastructure use (EC, 1998) and the White Paper of 2001 on the European Transport Policy till 2010 (EC, 2001a). Pricing reforms are still hindered by the existence of specific, critical gaps in the available body of knowledge, and by the insufficient level of consensus currently achieved within the transport community of stakeholders. Furthermore, the state of advancement of research and policy making on the issue of a more fair and efficient pricing system is uneven between modes: this implies that a differentiated approach has to be taken for rail/road and air/maritime.
IMPRINT-NET Coordination Action addresses Task 3.4.1.4.8 : Costs of transport infrastructure use and will provide a discussion platform on these topics.
Objectives:
The main objective of the project was to provide a discussion platform for policy makers, transport operators, researchers and other stakeholders to exchange views on the implementation of new pricing regimes, cost calculation methods, derivation of tariffs to be levied and on successful approaches to overcome barriers and to affect attitudes and perceptions.
IMPRINT-NET directly benefited from the experience accrued by its predecessors CAPRI (1998-1999) and IMPRINT-EUROPE (2001-2004), while featuring major innovations, in both contents and organisation. It cooperated closely with all relevant pricing research projects. As for its predecessor, the basic thrust of the IMPRINT-NET is to improve and enhance the links between pricing RTD and the policy community, notably by:
- transferring research findings to policy makers and stakeholders involved in the formulation and implementation of transport pricing reforms;
- stimulating the debate among stakeholders in order to build consensus on the principles and the practice of transport pricing, thus facilitating and accelerating the implementation of pricing reforms and contributing to the implementation of the EU transport policy.
Particular emphasis is laid on the following priorities:
- air and waterborne modes, for which the knowledge is less advanced;
- links between infrastructure charging and investment needs;
- pricing reforms in NAS, in the perspective of EU enlargement.
Methodology:
IMPRINT-NET established six Expert Groups (EG) reflecting the above-mentioned priorities. Each EG meets four times. One larger conference is staged each year, with a broader audience of researchers and stakeholders (EU National policy-makers, industry operators, Non-Governmental Organisations). Partners (ISIS, ITS, TNO, TUD ,BUTE) are a mix of public and private research consultancy, with outstanding experience in pricing research and transfer of findings to policy-makers. They have played a major role in IMPRINT-NET predecessors.
The work plan featured 7 WPs, combining modal perspective emerging policy priorities:
- Pricing for sustainable transport policies;
- Pricing reforms (road rail);
- Pricing reforms (air water);
- Implementing pricing reforms: revenue raising use;
- Transport pricing in the perspective of EU integration;
- Dissemination;
- Management of the work packages from 2 to 5 by organising the work and providing inputs to the EGs, feeding specific inputs to Conferences, issuing targeted deliverables, policy conclusions and recommendations.
Share this page