The present system of taxation in the transport sector of Germany is based on the assumption that the transport infrastructure is a public good and that taxes paid by the users are not earmarked. However the insight has grown that transportation infrastructure is a good club and that the users have to pay market prices for its use. First steps towards a market orientation have been taken in the railway sector by the reform of the railway companies. The basic principle is that the future private railway companies will be profit maximizing and the public bodies will run the public transport service according to market forces. If this structure is transferred to the road sector then this sector has to be reorganized by establishing a set of infrastructure funds which will be self-financing. A necessary condition for introducing such a decentral organization principle in the road sector is that an electronic road pricing system can be introduced. First tests with such electronic systems will be performed between Fall '93 and '94 on an Autobahn link between Bonn and Cologne. In the context of reorganization and new forms of finance in the transport sector, it has to be considered that the protection of the environment is an essential issue for the future transport policy. Therefore new concepts of organization and finance have to be accompanied by new forms of internalization of environmental diseconomies of transport.
Samenvatting