Railways
In 2010, together with the NRBs from the UK, the Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland, the Bundesnetzagentur started an initiative for increased cooperation between independent regulatory bodies in the rail sector. The long-term objective is to promote the exchange of experience and specialist knowledge and the development of best practices, thus harmonising the European single market through consistent application of the Community's regulatory framework. Based on this initiative, the Independent Regulators’ Group – Rail (IRG-Rail) was founded in 2011.
A particular platform for exchange among the rail regulatory authorities in the EU is the Rail Regulatory Bodies Working Group. Here, representatives from the European rail regulators, together with representatives from the European Commission, take part in quarterly meetings to discuss cross-border rail regulation topics. The focus of the group's work includes the recast of the First Railway Package, consisting of three directives (including Directive 2001/14/EC) issued in 2001. The objective is to ensure non-discriminatory access to railway infrastructure and to introduce an incentive system to reduce disruptions and increase the efficiency of the rail network by the route operators.
The Bundesnetzagentur is also represented at the regular meetings of the International Group for Improving the Quality of Rail Transport in the North-South Corridor (IQ-C). The working group consisting of representatives from the Dutch, Italian, Swiss and German regulatory authorities observes cross-border traffic in the corridor between Rotterdam and Milan to detect any obstacles to competition. The IQ-C's duties include observing allocations made by Rail Net Europe, an association of European railway infrastructure companies, of international paths via the "one-stop shop" for this corridor, informing each other of cases of discrimination and discussing further action.
The work also involves interpreting the vague legal terms "discrimination", "congested rail routes" and "rail route capacity". The first in a series of workshops on the topic of "discrimination" was organised by the Bundesnetzagentur in September 2007 to coincide with the Rail Law research days in Tübingen. At the meeting, the scope of the term was discussed with experts, using various cases of discrimination in access to infrastructure and the associated services, as well as uniform application and implementation of the non-discriminatory access requirement. All involved agreed that in order to ensure effective and genuine competition and guarantee attractive rail traffic products, discrimination has to be interpreted in broad terms.
The Technical Specifications for Interoperability for Telematic Applications for Freight (TAF TSI) are regulations for implementing a technical standard for EU-wide exchange of commercial and operative rail traffic data. In future, TAF TSI applications should enable seamless transition between infrastructures in different countries, thus further improving the competitiveness of rail transport. Due to this significance for competition, the Bundesnetzagentur provides a stream of input into the development of the TAF TSI in the specialist committees, in order to be able to ensure transparent and non-discriminatory application of this specification from the outset.