Overview
- Last Friday the Bundesnetzagentur held a hearing on a formal complaint by Italo that asks for multi‑year trassen guarantees so the company can begin German services as early as 2028.
- Italo has proposed buying dozens of high‑speed trains and signing long maintenance contracts worth billions to run about 50 daily connections on routes such as Munich–Berlin–Hamburg and Munich–Cologne.
- Flixtrain has publicly pledged a rapid scale‑up, saying it will double its services over the next two years, run new Talgo/Siemens high‑speed trainsets at up to 230 km/h and start direct Munich services from 2028.
- DB InfraGo opposes guaranteed multi‑year slots, arguing that major nodes and high‑performance lines are already congested and that current law and practice allocate trassen on an annual basis.
- A regulator decision expected in the coming weeks could force changes to how trassen (fixed train time slots on tracks) are allocated, with direct effects on ticket prices, service frequency, network reliability and the business case for new entrants.