The Monopolies Commission has reiterated its call for Deutsche Bahn to be split up. “The Deutsche Bahn Group has to be restructured,” says the chairman of the monopoly commission, Jürgen Kühling, of the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. The traffic light coalition’s plan for an infrastructure society geared towards the common good is “a sensible component of a comprehensive reform package”. The planned restructuring means a good step towards unbundling.
According to the report, Kühling intends to hand over the ninth “Railway Sector Report” to the Federal Government’s Monopolies Commission today. According to the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, the experts advocate more competition in the rail sector and comprehensive reforms.
In April, the Union presented a proposal to split up the rail company, which was approved by the Monopolies Commission. Accordingly, the areas of network, stations and the energy sector are to be separated from the DB Group and bundled in a federal infrastructure GmbH. According to these plans, the areas of local transport, long-distance transport and freight transport remain with the railways, which are also to be streamlined.
The federal government wants to keep the railways as an integrated group – there should be no separation of network and operation. In their coalition agreement, the SPD, Greens and FDP had announced the establishment of a new, public-interest-oriented infrastructure division that would be 100 percent owned by the state-owned Deutsche Bahn.
The Monopolies Commission advises the federal government on competition issues.
