Federal Railway Office

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Federal Railway Authority
- EBA -

logo
State level Federation
position Higher federal authority
Supervisory authority Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure
founding January 1, 1994
Headquarters Bonn , North Rhine-Westphalia
Authority management Gerald Hörster , President
Servants 1178 (as of May 2019)
Budget volume EUR 105.1 million (2019)
Web presence www.eba.bund.de

Coordinates: 50 ° 42 ′ 12 ″  N , 7 ° 8 ′ 21 ″  E

Headquarters of the EBA in Bonn
Branch office Erfurt
Branch office Halle (Saale)
Hamburg branch

The Federal Railway Authority ( EBA ) has been an independent German higher federal authority in the field of federal transport administration that has existed since January 1, 1994 . The EBA is subject to the supervision and instructions of the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) and is headed by a President.

Affiliated to the EBA are the Federal Railway Accident Investigation Center , the German Center for Rail Transport Research as an independent federal institute and Eisenbahn-Cert , which is responsible for the interoperability of the European railway system.

Responsibilities

In Germany, the EBA is the responsible railway supervisory authority or supervisory and licensing authority for domestic railway infrastructure companies that are mostly owned by the federal government (official abbreviation EdB, Federal Railways) and for German and Germany-wide operating foreign railway companies . The EBA is responsible for around 38,000 kilometers of railways (as of 2013).

According to § 47e of the Federal Immission Control Act , the EBA is responsible for reporting the main railway lines , mapping the noise of the federal railways, informing the public about the noise maps and the corresponding action plans for noise reduction within the framework of the implementation of the European Environmental Noise Directive ; however, a restriction applies to metropolitan areas in which the EBA is only involved in the action plans.

Non-federally owned public railways and non-publicly operated railroads are subject to the supervision of the federal states (see state representative for railway supervision ). They have the option of transferring supervision to the EBA (Section 5 (2) of the  General Railway Act (AEG)). Currently (2019), with the exception of Hesse, Lower Saxony, Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg, all federal states have regulated this in this way. In such cases, the EBA acts on the instructions and for the account of the federal states.

Since January 1, 2007, the EBA has been running the vehicle settings register for Germany in accordance with Section 5 (1e) AEG and the European Union directives listed in Section 25a AEG “Vehicle Settings Register” and is therefore also responsible for assigning vehicle and model series numbers.

The EBA supervises around two thirds of the railway companies in Germany. At the end of 2014, it employed 1,197 people, including 891 civil servants. More than 300 employees work at the headquarters in Bonn; another 700 in twelve branch offices at 15 locations. In 2014, expenses of 84.6 million euros were set against income of 28.1 million euros.

The EBA is organized on one level. The investigation of railway accidents no longer falls under the responsibility of the Federal Railway Authority . The federal railway accident investigation center was set up for this purpose.

In addition, the EBA has been given the authority to approve and monitor magnetic levitation trains ( General Magnetic Levitation Railway Act - AMbG).

When the EBA was founded, the legal department (Section 11) of the authority was initially also responsible for railway competition matters. This resulted in a new section (section 15) for "network access" in August 2002, to which the decision on the matters resulting from sections 13 and 14 of the AEG was assigned. A total of around 150 network access procedures were carried out in 2003 and 2004. At the end of February 2005, the decision was made to transfer this task to the regulatory authority for telecommunications and post in the course of adapting railway regulations to EU law .

Since January 1, 2006, the Federal Network Agency has been responsible for monitoring access to the railway infrastructure. The ordinance on non-discriminatory access to the railway infrastructure and on the principles for levying charges for the use of the railway infrastructure ( Railway Infrastructure Usage Ordinance - EIBV) contains detailed provisions .

Authorization basis

The legal basis for the actions of the EBA forms of § 5 (2) of the General Railway Act (AEG) . The tasks of approval (except for vehicles) and approval of infrastructures (building supervision) can only be traced back indirectly (defense against future violations) to this authorization basis.

history

With effect from January 1, 1994, as part of the structural reform of the German railways, the former special assets of the federal government - the Deutsche Bundesbahn and the Deutsche Reichsbahn - were divided into the corporate division Deutsche Bahn AG (DB AG) as well as - the then Federal Ministry of Transport downstream - the territorial area with the federal authority Federal railway (EBA) and the fund Bundeseisenbahnvermögen (BEV). The merger of these two authorities planned for 2009 has failed.

With the second law to amend railway regulations passed by the Federal Cabinet on April 25, 2001 , the competences of the EBA were expanded. Among other things, the EBA was thus obliged to ensure non-discriminatory access to the rail network. The supervisory authority's powers to intervene have also been expanded and clarified.

The first president of the EBA was Horst Stuchly . His successor, Armin Keppel , was appointed President of the EBA in 2003. Since 2007 he has also headed the Federal Railroad Fund (BEV) in personal union; Keppel retired in 2008. Gerald Hörster took up his post as third president in 2009 .

The EBA is divided into five departments: the central department, the infrastructure department, the department for vehicles and operations, the financing department and the department for planning approval, environment and passenger rights.

The authority will reduce its staff by around two percent per year by 2013. Critics criticized the extensive downsizing in critical areas. Between 2003 and 2013, the number of employees responsible for monitoring track systems was halved. The average age of the workforce was 49 years at the beginning of 2014.

Admission Guidelines

Approval of old technology:

new technic

See also

Web links

Commons : Eisenbahn-Bundesamt  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Enak Ferlemann: Answer of May 28, 2019 to written question No. 93 by MP Sabine Leidig (DIE LINKE.) . In: German Bundestag (ed.): Drucksache 19/10535 . Bundesanzeiger Verlag GmbH, May 31, 2019, ISSN  0722-8333 , p. 68 ( online [PDF; 860 kB ; accessed June 7, 2019]; this number includes 10 employees of the German Center for Rail Transport Research (DZSF) and 29 employees of Eisenbahn-Cert (EBC)).
  2. ↑ Federal budget. www.Bundeshaushalt.de, accessed on October 23, 2019 .
  3. ^ A b Thiemo Heeg: Engineers without whom no ICE is allowed to run . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . No. 81 , April 13, 2014, ISSN  0174-4909 , p. C2 ( online ).
  4. ↑ a b Nikolaus Doll: austerity course in railway supervision endangers train traffic . In: The world . No. 199 , August 27, 2013, ISSN  0173-8437 , p. 9 (similar version online ).
  5. ↑ Enak Ferlemann: Answer of October 2, 2019 to written question No. 57 by the MP Ingrid Nestle (BÜNDNIS 90 / DIE GRÜNEN) . In: German Bundestag (ed.): Drucksache 19/13725 . Bundesanzeiger Verlag GmbH, October 4, 2019, ISSN  0722-8333 , p. 36 ( online [PDF; 716 kB ; accessed on October 31, 2019]).
  6. ↑ Federal Railway Authority (ed.): EBA annual report 2014/2015 . Bonn November 2015, p. 7, 39 ( PDF file ). PDF file ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ Hans Jürgen Kühlwetter: Relocation of the regulatory task from the Federal Railway Office to the regulatory authority for telecommunications post . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , issue 4/2005, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 164.
  8. ↑ Notification EBA becomes regulatory authority . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , issue 6/2001, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 242.
  9. ↑ Thomas Durchdenwald: The buffer stop for everyone . In: Stuttgarter Zeitung . No. 242 , October 18, 2013, p. 28 (similar version online ).