Track-access charges are the single largest infrastructure cost in German SPNV and the cost item that has moved most since 2025. In March 2026 the Court of Justice struck down the statutory cap that had shielded regional services; in July the Bundesnetzagentur re-set the 2026 charges retrospectively; on 1 October 2026 the VG Köln raised the cost ceiling for 2027 by some €0.9 bn; and DB InfraGO has since applied for a further 7.7 % on regional services for 2027 and signalled around 15 % for 2028. A reform of the charging system is promised and not yet tabled. This note sets out the mechanics, the chronology and the open points.
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EU charging principles
Directive 2012/34/EU sets the frame. Charges for the minimum access package must be set at the cost that is directly incurred as a result of operating the train service (Art. 31(3)); the method for calculating those direct costs is laid down in Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/909. Member States may allow mark-ups to recover more than direct cost, provided the market can bear them, the mark-ups are set on efficient, transparent and non-discriminatory principles, and market segments that cannot bear them are protected (Art. 32(1)). Within that frame the infrastructure manager must retain managerial independence in setting the charges (Arts. 4 and 29) — the point on which the German cap failed.
The German model: cost ceiling, full cost, mark-ups
Germany uses the mark-up option to its full extent. The ERegG obliges DB InfraGO to recover its full costs through charges, and the Bundesnetzagentur fixes an upper limit of total costs (Obergrenze der Gesamtkosten, OGK) for each timetable period under an incentive-regulation regime. The OGK is then distributed across market segments: each segment pays the direct costs plus a mark-up sized to its estimated ability to bear it. The charging system itself (Trassenpreissystem, TPS) — segments, components, discounts — is approved separately; for 2027 the Bundesnetzagentur approved the segmentation on 11 March 2026, abolishing among other things the new-traffic discount and the »Express« component in freight and long-distance.
Two features drive the level. The return on equity allowed to DB InfraGO, which feeds through federal equity injections into the cost base, was cut by statute to 1.9 % at the end of 2025, taking roughly €700 m out of the 2026 costs. And the mark-ups are large: Böttger and Mietzsch put them at €5.6 bn in 2025, of which €3.6 bn fell on SPNV, €1.4 bn on long-distance and €0.6 bn on freight. On their figures, a 1 % rise in charges costs SPNV about €41 m today, against about €5.5 m under a direct-cost system.
Chronology 2023–2026
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1 Apr 2023 | ERegG amendment: SPNV charge growth tied to the dynamisation of the Regionalisierungsmittel (1.8 % p.a., from 2026 3 %); the shortfall to be recovered from long-distance and freight (Trassenpreisbremse). |
| Nov 2024 | VG Köln refers the compatibility of the cap to the Court of Justice. |
| 11 Dec 2025 | Bundesnetzagentur approves the 2026 charges: SPNV +3 %, average +2.4 %. |
| 19 Mar 2026 | CJEU, C-770/24: the cap is incompatible with Directive 2012/34/EU; no limitation of temporal effects. |
| 23 Apr 2026 | DB InfraGO applies for new charges for 2025 and 2026. |
| 24 Jun 2026 | Bundesnetzagentur fixes the OGK for 2026/2027 at €7,317 m (about +5 %). |
| 22 Jul 2026 | 2026 charges re-set within the unchanged ceiling (BK10-26-0047_E): SPNV +9 % (DB InfraGO), long-distance −17 %, freight −12 %; about €400 m moves onto SPNV, applied from July with correction invoices for earlier months. |
| 23 Jul 2026 | VG Köln refuses DB InfraGO interim relief on station charges and indicates that the station-charge cap is likewise incompatible with Union law (18 L 2379/24, 18 L 437/26). |
| 6 Aug 2026 | Special transport ministers’ conference unanimously demands full federal compensation. |
| 31 Aug 2026 | More than forty operators and the Free State of Bavaria sue in Köln against the 22 July decision. |
| 1 Oct 2026 | VG Köln (18 L 1831/26, unappealable) raises the 2026/2027 OGK to just over €8.2 bn. |
| 5 Oct 2026 | DB InfraGO files its 2027 charging application (below). |
The full analysis of the judgment and the July re-tariffing is in the development notes on the preliminary reference and on track-access charges after the judgment.
The 2025 charging year. The judgment reaches back to 2025 as well. The Bundesnetzagentur is dealing with it in a separate proceeding, BK10-26-0046_E, opened on its own initiative after DB InfraGO’s application of 23 April 2026: it is considering withdrawing the approval of 22 March 2024 (BK10-23-0400_E) for the 2024/2025 charging system and approving new charges for DB InfraGO and DB RegioNetz Infrastruktur. The oral hearing took place on 25 June 2026. As of 19 October 2026 no decision has been published — neither on the Ruling Chamber’s page nor in a press release. The 2026 decision is widely read as the template, i.e. a comparable shift of mark-ups from long-distance and freight onto SPNV within the 2025 cost ceiling, with correction invoices for a charging year that has already been fully invoiced and, in gross contracts, settled with the authorities. Böttger and Mietzsch estimate that the re-determination of 2025 and 2026 together could shift up to about €1 bn.
The 2027 round
The cost ceiling. The Bundesnetzagentur had deducted from DB InfraGO’s cost base the federal maintenance grants expected for 2027. The VG Köln held in interim proceedings that this was unlawful at the time of the decision: grants may only reduce the cost base once their payment is settled in principle, and the 2027 performance agreement between the Federal Government and DB InfraGO (LV InfraGO) did not yet exist and is only expected at the end of 2026. The court set the OGK at just over €8.2 bn, against €7.317 bn fixed by the regulator and about €7.55 bn originally claimed by DB InfraGO — some 17 % above the 2026 ceiling.
The application. The OGK is a ceiling, not a target. DB InfraGO’s application of 5 October 2026 seeks revenue of about €7.5 bn, an average increase of about 7.9 %:
| Segment | 2026 (re-set July 2026) | 2027 (application 5 Oct 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| SPNV (regional) | +9 % | +7.7 % |
| SPFV (long-distance) | −17 % | +5.0 % |
| SGV (freight) | −12 % | +12.9 % |
| Average | — | +7.9 % |
The August application had put SPNV at +7.8 % and an average of about €7.59 per train-kilometre. Some authority-side statements after the court order had expected 16–17 % for SPNV; that figure reflects the full ceiling, not the application now on file. For 2028 DB InfraGO has signalled a preliminary €8.6 bn — an average increase of about 15.1 % — subject to the level of federal maintenance funding. The Bundesnetzagentur has to decide on the 2027 charges by mid-December 2026; the timetable changes on 13 December 2026, so operators will learn the price of paths they have already ordered days before running them.
Subsidies. The draft 2027 federal budget cuts the freight track-charge subsidy from €265 m to €200 m and the long-distance line from around €200 m to around €5 m. There is no federal line compensating SPNV; the Regionalisierungsmittel grow by 3 % a year to 2031.
First service cuts. Authorities have begun to adjust volumes. The VVO (Saxony), facing €8.8 m of additional cost this year, plans to drop weekend services on the RB 45 between Döbeln and Elsterwerda, cut the S3 back to Tharandt and possibly withdraw the RB 71 Pirna – Sebnitz; Zweckverband Mittelsachsen reports €5.3 m. Schleswig-Holstein says its 2024 off-peak cuts will not be enough this time. Baden-Württemberg put eleven planned line reactivations on hold on 12 October 2026 (among them the Bottwartalbahn, Breisach – Colmar and the Schwäbische Albbahn) for review in five years; Transport Minister Razavi: »Die Regionalisierungsmittel des Bundes sind nicht mehr auskömmlich«, with a recurring shortfall in the hundreds of millions a year. The chair of the transport ministers’ conference puts the Länder gap at »several hundred million euros«.
The proceedings
- Operators against the regulator — the challenge organised by the Bundesverband SchienenNahverkehr against the 22 July 2026 re-tariffing (filed 31 August 2026), joined by Bavaria. DB InfraGO is invoicing in the meantime.
- DB InfraGO against the regulator — on the 2027 cost ceiling (interim order of 1 October 2026 in DB InfraGO’s favour; main proceedings continue) and on station charges for 2025/2026 (interim relief refused in July).
- Länder against the Federal Government — announced by the transport ministers’ conference of 6 August 2026 as a conditional step if no compensation is given; not, to our knowledge, filed.
The reform debate
The coalition agreement promises a reform of the charging system; the Federal Ministry of Transport has not yet tabled a draft, and the draft tenth amendment of the railway legislation (consulted in August 2026) contains none. On 1 October 2026 Allianz pro Schiene, Die Güterbahnen, mofair and the VDV declared the original start date of 1 January 2027 unreachable and asked for a new system by the 2028 timetable at the latest, built on a marginal-cost model with multi-year planning certainty; they criticise the options under discussion as shifting costs between segments rather than solving the problem.
The economic case for the direct-cost model is set out by Böttger and Mietzsch (Wirtschaftsdienst 2026, 453): charges based on the directly incurred costs under Regulation 2015/909, no segmentation and mark-ups, and the resulting gap of about €2 bn closed by a mix of a federal track-charge subsidy, higher direct-cost rates, scarcity charges on congested sections, and investment surcharges for post-1988 high-speed lines — with the SPNV share paid by the Federal Government directly to DB InfraGO rather than through the Länder. Industry estimates of the federal cost of a move to direct cost range from €2 to €3.8 bn a year, which is the obstacle. A second structural demand, made by the Bundesrat in October 2025, is to fund infrastructure by construction grants rather than equity injections, because equity feeds back into the charge base.
The transport ministers’ conference meets on 21–22 October 2026 in Hohenschwangau, with charges and federal compensation on the agenda.
Why it matters for rolling-stock financing
For a fleet financing the question is not the level of charges as such but whose cash flow absorbs the change, and when. In a gross contract with genuine pass-through of Trassenentgelte the authority carries it; in a gross contract indexed to general inflation, or in a net contract, the operator does. Either way the money comes from the same Regionalisierungsmittel envelope that funds availability payments and Kapitaldienst — and the first response of the authorities is volume reduction, which cuts kilometre-based revenue while lease obligations stay whole. Models built on the pre-2026 trajectory (SPNV +11 % between 2020 and 2024) understate the charge line; a 2027 increase of 7–8 % and a signalled 15 % for 2028 belong in the base case, not the downside. Pass-through clauses should distinguish charges levied under an enforceable charging decision from charges payable only after final judgment, and allocate the interim liquidity of correction invoices expressly.
What to watch
- The Bundesnetzagentur’s decision on the 2027 charges (by mid-December 2026) and on the 2025 charging year (BK10-26-0046_E, heard on 25 June 2026, decision outstanding).
- The LV InfraGO and the 2027 maintenance grants — their amount decides how much of the €8.2 bn ceiling becomes charges in 2027 and 2028.
- The outcome of the transport ministers’ conference of 21–22 October 2026 and any federal compensation offer.
- A draft charging reform, and whether it reaches the 2028 timetable.
- The main proceedings in Köln, including any application for interim relief by the operators.
Related topic notes
- Track access & capacity allocation · Track-access charges
- Fourth Railway Package · TSI · Safety certification & vehicle authorisation · ECM
- Freight corridors & combined transport · Passenger rights · State aid for rail · Altmark
Sources: Directive 2012/34/EU (Arts. 4, 29, 31, 32); Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/909; CJEU, judgment of 19 March 2026, C-770/24; Bundesnetzagentur press release of 22 July 2026, BK10 publications of 24 June 2026 and proceeding page BK10-26-0046_E (as of 7 May 2026); BBG und Partner, 12 August 2026; DB InfraGO customer information KW11, KW17 and KW30/2026; VG Köln, order of 1 October 2026, 18 L 1831/26, as reported by beck-aktuell (2 October 2026); dpa report of 5 October 2026 (t-online); Zughalt of 1 and 8 October 2026; NahverkehrsPraxis of 25 August 2026; kommunal.de of 17 October 2026; dpa via echo24 of 12 October 2026 (Baden-Württemberg); Böttger/Mietzsch, Wirtschaftsdienst 106 (2026), 453–458; earlier sources as listed in the linked development notes. Facts as published; not independently verified.
Last reviewed: 19 October 2026.