The proposal will now be submitted to the Ministry of Development for inclusion in the Draft Law of General State Budgets (PGE).

The revised tariff, which has already been endorsed by National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC), is intended to align infrastructure charges more closely with costs directly attributable to train operations.

On high-speed lines, cost coverage through access charges currently averages 97%, although there is significant variation - long distance passenger trains currently generate a surplus with cost coverage of 112%, but freight trains operating on the high-speed network cover only 13% of attributable infrastructure costs.

Under the new tariff structure, which reduces the rate for the so-called VL 1 charge by 9.2%, inter-city passenger services will cover 99.5% of their directly attributable infrastructure costs. Adif estimates that if 2018 traffic levels are maintained this year, revenue from track access fees would still increase by €7.7m.

A 16% reduction in track access fees is proposed for international high-speed inter-city services to “favour the progressive entry of new operators.”

A bonus system, which provides operators with discounts of up to 50% for optimising capacity utilisation and stimulating ridership growth, is set to continue under the new structure.

Adif will also eliminate additional fees currently levied on the operation of variable-gauge trains, in line with the requirements of the CNMC, which says the market will not sustain these surcharges.

So far only one operator has announced its intention to compete with incumbent Renfe in the Spanish high-speed market. Intermodalidad de Levante (Ilsa), a subsidiary of Spanish airline Air Nostrum, is planning to launch Montpellier - Barcelona - Madrid services and is currently in the process of sourcing rolling stock.