The efficient use of infrastructure – is Sweden pricing traffic on its roads, railways, waters and airways at marginal costs?

This review summarizes recent information about the marginal costs for using Sweden’s infrastructure and the relationship between the sum of marginal costs and charges for each mode. It is demonstrated that the tax on petrol used by private cars is higher than the marginal costs for emissions, accident risk and road wear and tear. The diesel tax is, on the other hand, not sufficient for internalization of heavy vehicles’ externalities. Neither trains nor aircraft or ships pay for their marginal costs. For railways, this confirms previous observations that Swedish track user charges are low in an international context. Except for a low level of charges, several examples are given of the strong motives for differentiation of charges in time and geography. The rapid technical development makes the cost motive for not differentiating the charges increasingly irrelevant.