Rail regulation

With the Third Act amending the Railway Regulations of 27 April 2005 the General Railway Act (AEG) was comprehensively revised. As a result, the Federal Network Agency will be given new scopes of responsibility in the field of railway regulation starting on 1 January 2006. The Federal Network Agency will be tasked with monitoring rail competition and will hence be responsible for ensuring non-discriminatory access to railway infrastructure. Substantive supervision in railway regulation is the task of the Federal Ministry of Transport, Construction and Town Development (BMVBS), organisational responsibility remains with the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi):

The Federal Network Agency’s tasks in the field of railway regulation derive primarily from §§ 14 to 14f of the AEG, supplemented by the Ordinance on Railway Infrastructure Usage Regulations (EIBV). The Agency will monitor compliance with the rules governing access to railway infrastructure, especially as regards the compilation of the train schedule, decisions on the allocation of railway embankments, access to service facilities, usage conditions, rates principles and rate levels.

Unlike the telecommunications and postal markets, railway infrastructure will be characterised by symmetric regulation, i.e. all public railway infrastructure operators will be subject to Federal Network Agency regulation, irrespective of market position. Public railway infrastructure operators must provide railway companies and other parties with access rights – e.g. haulage contractors and carriers – not just with access to the route proper but also to the service facilities such as railway stations, maintenance quarters, ports and rail sidings.

In some instances the railway infrastructure operator will be obliged to notify the Agency in advance of planned decisions, e.g. when it intends to reject an application for allocation of railway embankments or for access to service facilities. Within very short periods (scaled from one day to four weeks), the Agency will have the chance to withhold consent to the planned decision This objection will include Agency specifications which will need to be taken into account in the new decision and may result in certain rules and conditions not being allowed to come into force, e.g. rate levels. Apart from these preventive regulatory rights, there will also be the possibility of subsequent verification of usage conditions for rail tracks and service facilities and of rules about the level or structure of route rates and other rates.

For each period covered by a train schedule, currently spanning a whole year, the Federal Network Agency will draft an activity report for the federal government. The Act also prescribes the establishment of a Railway Infrastructure Advisory Council.