On October 7, 2026, the Federal Administrative Court in Köln rejected a capacity allocation regulation devised by the German rail regulator Bundesnetzagentur that would have affected train path availability on congested long-distance routes.
The measure, introduced by Bundesnetzagentur in July 2026, aimed to restrict any single operator to between 60% and 75% of available long-distance train paths on congested routes. This would have required infrastructure manager DB InfraGO to reserve a proportion of these paths for operators other than Deutsche Bahn, notably to facilitate market access for competitors such as Italian open access operator NTV-Italo. The rule was intended to
be implemented from the 2028 timetable year, with capacity allocation preparations scheduled in 2027.
The court found that German and EU railway legislation did not provide sufficient legal authority to impose the proposed capacity restrictions. It highlighted that the regulation’s limited geographical, temporal, and substantive scope failed to ensure the long-term certainty necessary to underpin investment in new long-distance train services by private operators.
The ruling impacts NTV-Italo’s plans to enter the German market, which include an estimated €3.6 billion investment to start operations in 2028. Italo has ordered a fleet of high-speed trains from Siemens Mobility for use in
Germany.
In a related decision, the court overturned a regulation that would have granted competitors access to DB station lounges on the basis that these facilities lack railway-specific operational purposes. Maintaining existing operational arrangements may delay market entry and expansion plans for private operators.
