Regionalization Act
| Basic data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Law on the regionalization of local public transport |
| Short title: | Regionalization Act |
| Abbreviation: | RegG |
| Type: | Federal law |
| Scope: | Federal Republic of Germany |
| Legal matter: | Special administrative law , traffic law |
| References : | 9240-3 |
| Issued on: | December 27, 1993 ( Federal Law Gazette I pp. 2378, 2395 ) |
| Entry into force on: | January 1, 1996 (Art. 11 Para. 2 ENeuOG ) |
| Last change by: |
Art. 1 G of March 6, 2020 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 445 ) |
| Effective date of the last change: |
January 1, 2020 (Art. 1 G of March 6, 2020) |
| GESTA : | J020 |
| Please note the note on the applicable legal version. | |
The Regionalization Act (RegG) was enacted as Article 4 of the Railway Reorganization Act on December 27, 1993. The regionalization of rail traffic regulated therein is one of the three main contents of the rail reform in Germany . The funds distributed under this law are referred to as "regionalization funds".
The law defines ensuring that the population is adequately served with public transport services as a task of general interest . In the sense of the Regionalization Act, local public transport is “the generally accessible transport of people by means of public transport , which are primarily intended to meet the demand for urban, suburban or regional transport . In case of doubt, this is the case if, in the majority of cases of transport by a means of transport, the total travel distance does not exceed 50 kilometers or the total travel time does not exceed one hour. "
While long-distance passenger rail transport is operated independently by each railway company, i.e. without state aid, local rail passenger transport is mainly financed with the help of regionalization funds. They are available to the federal states from the mineral oil tax revenue due to the regionalization law for ordering local transport services. The state or the special purpose associations determine the traffic routes, the volume of traffic and other criteria such as cycles and vehicles. On this basis, they use tenders to determine the cheapest offer for a contract period (usually more than five years). There are also direct awards and direct award procedures. According to Section 5, the regionalization funds from the federal mineral oil tax revenue are available to the federal states. The distribution to the individual federal states has also been regulated by Article 5 since 2008 (previously Article 8).
Development of regionalization funds
See also: Kiel Key
| year | Amount of funds (in million euros) |
|---|---|
| 1996 | 4448 |
| 1997 | 6136 |
| 1998 | 6136 |
| 1999 | 6340 |
| 2000 | 6697 |
| 2001 | 6822 |
| 2002 | 6745 |
| 2003 | 6846 |
| 2004 | 6949 |
| 2005 | 7053 |
| 2006 | 7053 |
| 2007 | 6710 |
| 2008 | 6675 |
| 2009 | 6775 |
| 2010 | 6877 |
| 2011 | 6980 |
| 2012 | 7085 |
| 2013 | 7191 |
| 2014 | 7299 |
In 2004 the federal and state governments agreed to cut the funds by 137 million euros. In 2006, a further cut of a total of 1.4 billion euros for the years 2006 to 2008 was decided. In 2007 the level of regionalization funds was below the level of 2002. As a result, the market leader DB Regio alone reduced its services by 5.3 million train kilometers.
In the spring of 2006 there was heated argument about the cut in regionalization funds. Proponents cited the current budget situation and possible efficiency gains in the transport associations. Opponents referred to the positive development over the past eight years. With an increase in funds by 14%, 27% more passengers could be won for local rail transport. They feared drastic increases in fares and cuts in services, especially in rural areas. The cuts took effect on July 1, 2006. If the regionalization funds, starting from 6.745 billion euros for the year 2002, increased annually by 1.5 percent, on that day they were fixed at an annually decreasing lump sum until 2008.
In November 2007 a further amendment of the regionalization law was decided. For 2008 it provides funds of 6.675 billion euros (-34 million euros compared to 2007). These funds will increase by 1.5% annually and reach 7.3 billion euros in 2014. With the new version of the law, the federal states are obliged to make the use of federal funds transparent every year. In 2014, the amount of funds for periods from 2015 is to be reviewed again. According to the Allianz pro Schiene , the annual regionalization funds grew by 8.7 percent between 2000 and 2013, and the transport performance in local rail passenger transport (in passenger kilometers ) by 31.9 percent. From 1996 to 2013, the number of passengers in regional rail transport increased by over 60 percent.
The regionalization law expired at the end of 2014. For the revision of the regionalization law that was due in 2014, the states demanded an increase in the budget and an increase in the dynamic factor by which the funds increase annually. At the Transport Ministers' Conference on October 1 and 2, 2014 in Kiel, the state transport ministers decided that the regionalization funds should be increased from 7.3 billion euros at the time to 8.5 billion euros annually. At the same time, the dynamization should increase from 1.5 to 2.8 in order to be able to compensate for the constantly increasing costs for the use of the infrastructure, energy and personnel. The distribution of funds between the individual states should change in favor of populous federal states.
A bill passed by the federal states provided for regionalization funds to be increased to 8.5 billion euros in 2015 and by two percent per year by 2030. A draft law by the Federal Ministry of Finance, on the other hand, provided for an increase of 1.5 percent for 2015 and does not provide any other specific figures. In contrast, an expert report commissioned by the federal government had identified an additional requirement of around 250 million euros. On March 27, 2015, the Mediation Committee was called to enact the law. Until a new law comes into force, the federal government will only pay out regionalization funds with reservations. At the end of 2014, the Federal Cabinet approved funds of 7.4 billion euros for 2015.
In September 2015, the Federal Chancellor and the Prime Ministers of the federal states agreed to increase regionalization funds in 2016 to 8 billion euros. Then they should increase by 1.8 percent per year. The distribution key between the federal states is also to be changed. The definition was part of a ten-page paper on refugee policy. An agreement was reached on June 16, 2016 at a top federal-state meeting. According to this, the federal government will increase the funds by 200 million euros annually, so that the eastern German states would not have to restrict their transport offer. In 2020 the regionalization funds were increased to 5.25 billion euros. This number is for a period from 2020 to 2031.
Web links
- Text of the regionalization law
- German Bundestag (ed.): Use of regionalization funds by the federal states . Answer of the Federal Government to the minor question from MPs Sabine Leidig, Herbert Behrens, Caren Lay, other MPs and the DIE LINKE parliamentary group. - Printed matter 18/411 - number = 18/537. February 17, 2014, ISSN 0722-8333 ( Online [PDF]).
- Deutscher Bundestag (Ed.): Report of the Federal Government on the use of regionalization funds by the states in 2016 . Notification by the federal government. No. 19/3395 , July 16, 2018, ISSN 0722-8333 ( Online [PDF]).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Deutsche Bahn AG: Competition Report 2007 ( Memento from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF, 6.6 MB), p. 17
- ↑ Art. 1 of the second law amending the regionalization law ( Federal Law Gazette 2007 I p. 2871 )
- ^ Allianz pro Schiene (Ed.): Stadt, Land, Schiene . 4th edition. Berlin December 6, 2014 ( Online [PDF]).
- ↑ http://www.verkehrsministerkonferenz.de/VMK/DE/termine/sitzungen/14-10-01-02-vmk/14-10-01-02-pm.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=2 Press release on the Conference of Transport Ministers on October 1st and 2nd, 2014 in Kiel
- ↑ Mediation committee for the Regionalization Act called ( Memento of the original from May 20, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Jan Berger: How much can regional transport cost? In: Heilbronn voice . March 5, 2015, p. 3 .
- ↑ Countries are threatening cuts in local transport . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . No. 296 , December 20, 2014, ISSN 0174-4909 , p. 18 .
- ↑ Fabian Ziehe: Funding for the rail: the country benefits greatly . In: Südwest Presse . September 26, 2015, ZDB ID 1360527-6 , p. 6 ( online ).
- ↑ Sven Böll: Bad game . In: Der Spiegel . No. 31 , 2016, p. 70 f . ( online ).
- ↑ No breakthrough in federal-state finance. In: Zeit Online. June 17, 2016, accessed June 18, 2016 .
