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1.Infrastructure managers shall, with due regard to safety and to maintaining and improving the quality of the infrastructure service, be given incentives to reduce the costs of providing infrastructure and the level of access charges.
2.Without prejudice to their competence regarding railway infrastructure planning and financing, and to the budgetary principle of annuality, where applicable, Member States shall ensure that a contractual agreement, fulfilling the basic principles and parameters set out in Annex V, is concluded between the competent authority and the infrastructure manager covering a period of not less than five years.
Member States shall ensure that contractual agreements in force on 15 December 2012 are modified, if necessary, to align them with this Directive upon their renewal, or at the latest by 16 June 2015.
3.Member States shall implement the incentives referred to in paragraph 1 through the contractual agreement referred to in paragraph 2 or through regulatory measures or through a combination of incentives to reduce costs in the contractual agreement and the level of charges through regulatory measures.
4.If a Member State decides to implement the incentives referred to in paragraph 1 through regulatory measures, this shall be based on an analysis of the achievable cost reductions. This shall be without prejudice to the powers of the regulatory body to review the charges referred to in Article 56.
5.The terms of the contractual agreement referred to in paragraph 2 and the structure of the payments agreed to provide funding to the infrastructure manager shall be agreed in advance to cover the whole of the contractual period.
6.Member States shall ensure that applicants and, upon their request, potential applicants are informed by the competent authority and the infrastructure manager and are given the opportunity to express their views on the content of the contractual agreement before it is signed. The contractual agreement shall be published within one month of concluding it.
The infrastructure manager shall ensure consistency between the provisions of the contractual agreement and the business plan.
7.Infrastructure managers shall develop and maintain a register of their assets and the assets they are responsible for managing which would be used to assess the financing needed to repair or replace them. This shall be accompanied by details of expenditure on renewal and upgrading of the infrastructure.
8.Infrastructure managers shall establish a method for apportioning costs to the different categories of services offered to railway undertakings. Member States may require prior approval. That method shall be updated from time to time on the basis of the best international practice.