{"id":236511,"date":"2025-06-16T20:17:50","date_gmt":"2025-06-16T10:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/?p=63222"},"modified":"2025-06-16T20:17:50","modified_gmt":"2025-06-16T10:17:50","slug":"separate-ownership-of-db-infrago-also-says-german-government-advisory-body","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=236511","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Separate ownership of DB InfraGO\u2019, also says German government advisory body"},"content":{"rendered":"

With massive rail investments incoming, there is a greater need for transparency. That is the view of the German Monopolies Commission, an advisory body to the German government. It concurs with earlier sector calls for a full separation of DB InfraGO from Deutsche Bahn (DB), because there is a risk of market distortion.<\/strong>
\n<\/span>The Monopolies Commission has called for the separation of infrastructure manager DB InfraGO from the Deutsche Bahn group before. However, it says in its tenth railway report, \u201cthis is now even more urgent. Only the separation of ownership rights will create the conditions necessary for the now even greater financial resources to be used exclusively for investments in infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Germany will invest nearly 600 billion euros in infrastructure in the coming 12 years. The majority of that money will go to rail. For that reason, the Monopoly Commission considers it even more important to improve transparency.<\/p>\n

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\"Deutsche<\/p>\n

Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz announced the establishment of DB InfraGO, the successor of DB Netz and DB Station&Service. Image: \u00a9 Deutsche Bahn<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

DB InfraGO out of DB group<\/h2>\n

The way to do that, it says, is to entirely unbundle DB InfraGO from Deutsche Bahn. Currently, DB operations with profit and loss transfer agreements: Subsidiaries transfer their annual results to Deutsche Bahn, which then consolidates them. DB passes profits to the federal government as dividends, which are then partially recycled back into the infrastructure network.<\/p>\n

“This financing architecture for existing infrastructure investments is too complex and non-transparent\u201d, says the Monopoly Commission. It poses a risk that some profits may remain within DB to aid loss-making business units and distort market competition. Moreover, the Commission says that the system violates EU competition law.<\/p>\n

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In the case of DB Cargo, the losses of which were compensated by DB for years, the EU Commission found the financial scheme to indeed be in breach of competition law. It has obliged DB Cargo to become financially profitable by 2026, and it must terminate DB\u2019s profit transfer agreements.<\/p>\n

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