Schienen-Control Newsletter Schienen-Control
Administrative Court ruling on ticket sales office
In its ruling of October 4, 2023, on Ro 2023/03/0001, the Administrative Court ruled in a case concerning a ticket sales office in a passenger railway station.
The Schienen-Control had granted a railway undertaking (RU) the use of the sales premises by means of a decision replacing the contract. One of the points of contention between the RU and the station operator was the right of access. The RU is based in another EU member state and operates in Austria through a cooperation agreement with another RU, which carries out the train journeys.
The Administrative Court agreed with the Schienen-Control argument that the company ensures traction in this way. It therefore meets the requirements of a railway undertaking (Section 1b EisbG) and has a right of access to the passenger station. This had previously been disputed in the proceedings.
In addition, the Administrative Court ruled that the Schienen-Control may also include provisions in a contract-replacing decision that address future developments such as the use of sales premises by other or multiple railway undertakings.
Current developments and statements from IRG-Rail
On October 30, 2023, IRG-Rail, the European network of railway regulatory authorities, published a preliminary opinion on the European Commission's guidelines on infrastructure charges. The opinion, drafted by the Charging Working Group, addresses surcharges, market segmentation, and incentives to optimize capacity utilization, with a particular focus on cross-border traffic.
Another important step was taken on November 3, 2023, when IRG-Rail published a statement on the proposed regulation on "new capacity utilization" presented by the European Commission in July. The statement, entitled General Remarks on EC Proposal for a Regulation on the Use of Railway Infrastructure Capacity in the Single Railway Area, calls for clarifications and better wording to avoid interpretation difficulties in later application. It also deals with the structure and organization of future capacity management and its regulation. The statement was submitted to the European Parliament's Transport Committee and also submitted as part of the European Commission's Have your say consultation process.
Both statements are available on the IRG-Rail website.
On November 28 and 29, 2023, the IRG-Rail Plenary Meeting took place in Berlin. Reports on the regulation of terminals and economic charging principles were adopted there. Both were published on the IRG-Rail website. In the coming year, IRG-Rail will focus on the introduction of ERTMS, the evaluation of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/2177, cross-border freight transport from a charging perspective, and will continue to closely monitor the legislative process for the Regulation on capacity utilization. In particular, reference should also be made to the need to include service facilities. Work on the 12th European Market Observation Report has already begun; it is scheduled to be presented in April 2024. In 2024, the Swedish regulatory authority Transportstyrelsen will chair IRG-Rail, followed by CNMC from Spain in 2025.
Acquisitions, transitions, and outlook for 2024
ÖBB Infrastructure construction projects for 2024 / BMK framework plan
ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG presented construction measures for the western axis (Upper Austria and Salzburg) and the southern axis back in October. Extensive work is planned in St. Valentin, Marchtrenk, Schwanenstadt, and Seekirchen am Wallersee. This will result in a 30-minute increase in travel time for long-distance trains between Vienna and Salzburg. Other construction projects include the closure of the southern railway line to Wiener Neustadt next summer and a three-week closure of the Semmering line in April.
At the end of October, the Federal Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation, and Technology (BMK) presented its framework plan for the years 2024-2029. This not only includes the provision of substantial funds for major projects such as the Semmering Base Tunnel (€1.5 billion), the Brenner Base Tunnel (€2.1 billion), and the Koralm Railway, but also provides for the electrification of 600 kilometers of track by 2035, for which €802 million has been earmarked. This will mainly benefit passenger transport.
The total investment amounts to €21.1 billion. Measures that specifically benefit freight transport (such as the expansion of the Inzersdorf terminal, the Pyhrn line, and the expansion of passing tracks for freight trains) require significantly lower investment volumes.
New additions include expenses of €515 million for the former GKB lines, which mainly comprise electrification and station renovations.
Press conference on the 2024 timetable and expansion of the TransNet network
On October 20, the 2024 timetable was presented, offering an additional 5.5 million timetable kilometers, 2.6 million of which are in the eastern region alone. This new timetable finally came into effect on December 10.
Among the numerous individual measures, particular mention should be made of the 900,000 additional train kilometers on the newly constructed Koralmbahn line from Klagenfurt to Wolfsberg and the newly introduced hourly Regional-Express (REX) connections from Vienna Floridsdorf via Vienna Central Station to Wiener Neustadt with a stop in Baden bei Wien. In other local transport services, improvements in the evening hours are particularly noteworthy. A total of 81 individual measures are included in the evaluation.
The new Nightjet trains will be gradually introduced by ÖBB Personenverkehr AG with a two-year delay from December 2023, while the new daytime trains will run between Munich and Verona from spring onwards. From October 2024, night trains will run daily between Vienna, Paris, and Brussels.
The Rail Cargo Group (RCG) also expanded its TransNet network to include a connection with Italy (Villach - Frosinone). The transit time for this new TransFER connection is one day, with initially one train per month and later one train pair per week. In addition, Brau Union and Spar will rely on RCG for their future transport needs: Trucks will transport beverage cargo in swap bodies from the Schwechat brewery to the Vienna South terminal, from where it will be transported by single wagon load to terminals near the seven Austrian Spar warehouses. The last leg of the logistics chain will then be handled by truck again. This means that no dedicated rail connection is required for the transports; this was removed in Schwechat years ago.
Acquisition of Go-Ahead by ÖBB-PV AG
ÖBB-PV AG recently acquired the German rail transport company Go-Ahead Verkehrsgesellschaft Deutschland GmbH. Go-Ahead Deutschland currently operates public regional train services in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg with around 1,000 employees and 144 modern electric multiple units.
RCA plans to switch from block train to single wagon transport from the 2024 timetable change
Rail Cargo Austria (RCA) plans to switch from block train to single wagon transport when the 2024 timetable comes into effect. Among other things, this affects the transport of wood chips between Schwarzenau and St. Michael, which is to be carried out using single wagon transport.
Starting in January 2024, Tuesday will be the standard day of rest for RCA single-car transport. This temporary approach in the first quarter aims to maintain revenue while reducing fixed costs. Individual solutions will be developed for major customers and special customer needs.
Railway undertakings receive ERA safety certificates for freight transport in Austria
The European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) has issued Czech railway company ČD Cargo with a five-year safety certificate for freight transport in Austria. ČD Cargo operates not only on the border section between Austria and Czechia, but also on the Baltic-Adriatic and Danube corridors.
It has also issued Helrom GmbH with an updated safety certificate for freight transport in Austria, among other countries, which is valid until summer 2026. Helrom serves the Freudenau terminal several times a week.
Salzburg AG spins off EVU
Salzburg AG spun off its EVU and received its transport license as Salzburg Linien Verkehrs GmbH on October 11. Since November 1, 2023, Salzburger Lokalbahn (SLB) no longer has access to the ÖBB infrastructure and will focus in future on transport within its own infrastructure between Salzburg Central Station and Lamprechtshausen and Ostermiething.
Vienna transport services contract extended
The City of Vienna has extended the VDV agreement with ÖBB-PV ahead of schedule by four years until 2033. Among other things, this will expand the rapid transit service offering. The extension was taken as an opportunity to significantly increase the originally agreed timetable kilometers and to order extensive additional services. The annual timetable kilometers will be gradually increased by a total of more than 10 million (from 46 to 57 million) between 2024 and 2029. The expansions include more frequent services on the southern line to Liesing and, from 2029, 15-minute intervals on the S80. In addition, a 2.5-minute interval is planned on the main line between Meidling and Floridsdorf, instead of the current 3 minutes. The Donauländebahn between Handelskai-Kaiserebersdorf, Oberlaa and Meidling, Stadlau - Breitenlee and Lobau will continue to be unused.
Performance data for the third quarter of 2023
ÖBB Infrastructure's performance data for the third quarter of 2023 shows a significant decline of six percent in freight transport performance and gross ton-kilometers compared to 2022 (note: this figure is just below the comparable figure for 2016!). Compared to the second quarter of 2023, there has also been a decline of five percent, although this could be due, at least to a certain extent, to the seasonality of the data. Freight train kilometers were also down five percent in a direct comparison of the third quarters and three percent lower than in the previous quarter of 2023. Eight percent fewer freight train journeys round off this negative picture.
Passenger transport continues to develop well: from the third quarter of 2022 to that of 2023, an additional one percent of passenger train kilometers was offered, although this was two percent less than in the second quarter of 2023. Aggregated over the first three quarters of 2023, the number of passenger train journeys on the ÖBB network once again reached a historic high.
Rail Cargo Austria's transport performance declined by ten percent compared to the second quarter of 2023 and by as much as twelve percent compared to the third quarter of 2022. Calculated over the whole of 2023, its market share is now only 58 percent, two percentage points less than in 2022 as a whole.
Compared to 2022, the EWV and the "classic" GZV (both in the upper single-digit percentage range) have declined significantly overall, while the KLV has merely stagnated. The share of "traditional" GZV in total freight transport has fallen to 38 percent, which together with KLV (UKV + RoLa) accounts for a share of 71 percent. The remaining 29 percent is accounted for by the declining EWV.
Internationally, combined transport is hardly growing and is recording high volume losses. For the third quarter of 2023, the UIRR combined transport association reports a drop in volume of around 17% compared to the same period last year. Volumes had already declined in the first two quarters of the current year, but to a lesser extent. According to the association, the causes include strikes, natural disasters, extensive construction work on the pan-European network, extreme weather conditions, the consequences of the war in Ukraine, generally weak economic performance, and cost increases due to persistently high railway electricity prices.
Revenue in 2022
The survey of domestic revenues of Austrian rail transport companies for the 2022 financial year has been completed. As expected, the majority of companies in freight and passenger transport were able to improve their results compared to 2021. However, passenger transport revenues adjusted for payments from GWL contracts were still almost 20% below the level of the previous record year of 2018. Freight transport, which was less severely affected by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and 2021, exceeded the figures for its best year to date (2019) in absolute terms.
8th Schienen-Control : The Future of Rail Transport in Europe
On October 5, 2023, Schienen-Control hosted its 8th symposium, which once again facilitated dialogue between international rail experts and interested parties from the industry. The event focused on current topics in competition regulation. Decision-makers from the industry used the forum to discuss the challenges and solutions for the common European passenger and freight transport market.
European developments
During the symposium, Reinhard Haller from the European Commission (DG MOVE) presented the proposal for a new capacity and traffic management system in Europe. This proposal forms the basis for improved organization and control of rail traffic in the European Union.
Karsten Otte, representative of BNetzA and IRG-Rail, devoted his presentation to the important role of regulators in the European Commission's reform project. He emphasized that framework conditions affecting the European railway sector should be subject to central regulatory review and assessment at an early stage. It is crucial to clearly define which area is considered a "European" regulatory area.
Challenges in freight transport
During the symposium, Andreas Himmel, an expert from Schienen-Control , discussed the various obstacles to rail freight transport from a regulatory perspective. His presentation emphasized that removing these obstacles is a joint task for all parties involved, including railway undertakings (RUs), infrastructure managers (IMs), and political decision-makers.
Werner Hecking, Managing Director of Steiermarkbahn, presented the challenges facing companies in rail freight transport. His presentation emphasized the need for increased networking and cooperation in the rail freight transport sector. The future success of rail freight transport requires the consistent removal of barriers and obstacles. In order to remain competitive, companies in the freight transport sector must intensify cooperation and remove obstacles.
New passenger rights since June 2023
Norman Schadler from the Agency for Passenger Rights (apf) highlighted the latest developments in the field of passenger rights. He provided information on the practical implications of the new EU regulation, which has been in force since the beginning of June, on the work of the apf. The experiences and challenges encountered so far in implementing the regulation were discussed. Finally, Schadler presented the apf's key demands for the further development of passenger rights, both at European and national level. These priorities aim to further strengthen passenger rights and thus continuously improve the attractiveness of rail transport for passengers.
railway regulation
Urs Kramer from the University of Passau presented the latest developments in European railway regulatory law during his presentation. He focused primarily on the legal aspects and significance of these changes for regulators and future legal interpretation in the rail transport sector. In important areas such as fees, decisions by the European Court of Justice have provided greater clarity on control and recovery options. These developments are of great importance and contribute to further clarifying and shaping the legal framework in the rail transport sector.
The symposium not only offered exciting presentations, but also created an ideal platform for discussion and networking with more than 100 experts from the fields of law, politics, and the passenger, infrastructure, and freight transport sectors. This opportunity enabled a comprehensive exchange of ideas and perspectives in order to actively shape the future of rail and freight transport in Europe.