Infrastructure operator

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Voralpen-Express of the Swiss Southeast Railway (SOB), here between Immensee and Arth-Goldau am Zugersee, operates the SBB route Arth-Goldau-Lucerne in the network access.
Lichtensteig railway station border station between the infrastructure of the SBB and the SOB.
Thurbo AG is not an infrastructure operator. It runs 640 km of SOB and SBB rails and carries 35 million passengers a year.
The Appenzellerbahnen continue to be both an infrastructure operator and a railway company

An infrastructure operator (ISB) ( French Gestionnaire d'infrastructure , Italian Gestore dell'infrastruttura ) is, according to the Swiss Railway Act (EBG of December 20, 1957; status on January 1, 2018), the name for companies that build and operate a railway infrastructure. The companies need a license for this , which the Federal Council approvesgranted if there is either a public interest in the construction and operation of the infrastructure or an inherently economical operation of the infrastructure can be expected. Companies that only operate regionally can operate a rail infrastructure under the Swiss Railway Act. The ISBs are financed through performance agreements.

After SBB Infrastructure , the largest infrastructure manager is BLS Netz AG , which, like Matterhorn Gotthard Infrastructure and Freiburgische Verkehrsbetriebe Infrastruktur (TPF INFRA) AG, is majority owned by the federal government. In Switzerland ISBs are partly railway company , such as the virgin web , the Rhaetian web , the central web , and the red trains . On the other hand, there are also pure railway companies that are not an infrastructure operator.

The German counterpart is a railway infrastructure company , also in Austria.

Legal basis

Article 5 following of the Railway Act deal with infrastructure managers. According to this article, an infrastructure operator needs an infrastructure license, which in turn is granted by the Federal Council after hearing the cantons concerned. If a license has been granted, the infrastructure manager is obliged to create and operate the infrastructure.

The operation of the railway infrastructure includes the installation and maintenance of the facilities as well as the management of the power supply, operations control and safety systems. The license is granted if there is a public interest in the construction and operation of the infrastructure or if commercial operation can be expected. However, a license will not be granted if reasons of spatial planning , environmental protection , nature and homeland protection or national security cooperation speak against it. If the infrastructure is run on cantonal roads ( trams ), approval from the cantons concerned is required.

A license can be granted for a maximum of 50 years, but can be changed and / or renewed. The license can also be transferred to another company if the Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communication gives its consent, but the cantons concerned are consulted beforehand. A license can also be revoked if construction does not commence within the specified time limits for the license, if construction is not completed or if operations are not started. A license can also be bought back by the federal government.

history

Originally, no distinction was made in Switzerland between the infrastructure operator and the railway company , as each owner also operated the corresponding routes.

The need for change was caused by Directive 91/440 / EEC of the European Economic Community of July 29, 1991, the aim of which was to revitalize and renew the Community's rail system. This should be made possible through the liberalization of rail traffic and through network access by so-called "third-party providers". The directive, which was implemented in the national law of the member states by the end of 1993, stipulated that the operation of the railway infrastructure and the provision of transport services by the railway companies must be separated from one another.

On June 21, 1999, Switzerland signed a bilateral contract with the European Union , the so-called Land Transport Agreement of 1999 . The agreement opened the road and rail transport market for the transport of people and goods between Switzerland and the European Union. At the same time, Switzerland undertook to implement parts of Directive 91/440 / EEC, including the separation of rail infrastructure and transport services. The separation was closely related to network access during the negotiations for the agreement. The EU demanded the creation of third party access rights to the existing railway infrastructure. Access should primarily serve to help the principle of freedom to provide services , which is the basis of the internal market, achieve a breakthrough in the rail sector across Europe.

In 2001, Directive 91/440 / EEC was amended by Directive 2001/12 / EC . The separation of the traffic from the infrastructure could now be carried out in terms of accounting, organization or institution. An institutional separation was no longer required. Separation of accounts is compulsory, organizational or institutional separation is optional. As a result, the various infrastructure operators implemented this regulation differently. However, until today there has been de facto no market access to the Swiss railway network for foreign companies.

The situation is different for Swiss transport companies. Network access to the SBB network was made possible for them. The Federal Office of Transport is responsible for coordinating the development of the railway infrastructure, for the network access authorizations, the determination of the train path prices, the specification of service agreements and the review of the service agreements. Trasse Schweiz AG is another important supervisory organization responsible for resolving train path conflicts on standard gauge networks, train path allocation, approval of the network timetable and the bottleneck analysis. With these institutions, Switzerland has largely made it possible for railway companies to provide freedom to provide services.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rail network by infrastructure manager (as of 2015, PDF).
  2. ↑ 742.101 Railway Act. Retrieved September 27, 2018 .
  3. ↑ The land transport agreement of 1999 opens the road and rail transport market for the transport of people and goods between Switzerland and the European Union (EU). Retrieved September 27, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Regulatory separation of network and operation on the railways? Retrieved September 27, 2018 .
  5. ^ Carlo Pfund Information Service for Public Transport from November 1, 2002. The separation of transport from the railway infrastructure or the separation philosophy of the European Union EU. P. 6.