According to legislation introduced in 2001, Switzerland is already paying to install low-noise systems in its national railway vehicles. Vehicles fi tted with noise-reducing technologies are refunded CHF per axle kilometre travelled in Switzerland. This translates into a € bonus for a typical four-axle wagon on the 300 km Basel-Chiasso line, an important link in the Germany- Italy transit route. A complete freight train with composite brake blocks gets a €93 refund, which is 5% of the total track access charge. Swiss taxes cover the resulting reduced income to infrastructure operators. The Dutch infrastructure manager ‘ProRail’ has recently implemented a.
