Deutsche Bahn is taking legal action against a ruling by the Federal Network Agency that will require it to free up more capacity for competitors on heavily used long-distance routes. The infrastructure subsidiary DB InfraGo will seek an expedited court hearing, according to railway circles.
The state-owned company argues that the regulator’s decision will significantly increase the number of conflicts over the use of certain train paths at specific times. This would create legal and practical problems for InfraGo’s management of track capacity.
The Federal Network Agency decided on July 17 that DB InfraGo must allocate at least a quarter of capacity to competitors on heavily used routes. This applies to congested corridors with defined capacity limits, such as those planned for the Munich and Frankfurt hubs.
The background to the regulation is the planned market entry of Italian railway company Italo into German long-distance services from 2028.
Source: www.tagesspiegel.de
