Germany's rail regulator forces Deutsche Bahn to open 25% of busy long-distance routes to competitors

Regulatory decision

On 30 June the Bundesnetzagentur (BNetzA) ordered DB InfraGo, the rail infrastructure arm of Deutsche Bahn, to allocate 25 to 40 percent of capacity on highly congested long-distance corridors to operators other than DB Fernverkehr. The rule caps the share any single company can hold at 60 to 75 percent, with the exact limit set by InfraGo. Only clock-face services qualify: competitors must run at least four trains a day at two-hour intervals, departing at the same minute. Stations, too, must offer space to rivals for ticket counters and lounges on "objective and non-discriminatory" terms.

Catalysts: Italo and FlixTrain

The decision was prompted by the Italian private high-speed operator Italo, which petitioned the BNetzA as it prepares to enter the German market. Italo plans to deploy 30 high-speed trains for 56 daily connections starting in spring 2028, with hourly service on the Munich–Frankfurt–Cologne–Dortmund axis and bi-hourly service on Munich–Berlin–Hamburg. Meanwhile, FlixTrain, the rail arm of Munich-based Flix, aims to ramp up frequencies on Berlin–Hamburg, Berlin–Leipzig and Hamburg–Cologne already in 2027, and to launch a high-frequency network linking all German metropolitan areas from summer 2028.

Expected benefits for passengers

“We are strengthening competition in long-distance rail. For passengers, competition means better quality and lower prices.”

The BNetzA expects that opening the market will drive down ticket prices and improve service reliability, as it has in other liberalised European rail markets.

DB warns of regional cuts

Deutsche Bahn, which controls roughly 95 percent of German long-distance traffic, argues that forcing it to surrender capacity on profitable corridors will starve its cross-subsidy model. The company says it uses revenues from these "race tracks" to fund less-travelled regional connections. "With this rule, at least two long-distance passenger rail operators would always receive slots on highly congested routes. The planned rule would thus exacerbate the structural problem of nodes and capacity," DB stated. The BNetzA counters that the measure applies only to already overloaded sections and does not affect regional or freight services.

Punctuality outlook

Sceptics note that Germany's rail punctuality crisis stems not from a lack of competition but from an outdated and overburdened network, with thousands of construction sites and bottlenecks at major nodes. Adding a new competitor like Italo is unlikely to fix those infrastructure shortcomings.