Competition Report 2006 - Deutsche Bahn AG

20
Unresolved legal issues and a diffi cult fi nancial position defi ne the public road transport environment.
Public road transport under pressure
Competition drivers in the local road transport market are currently the legal developments in Germany and
Europe, as well as continuing scant fi nancial resources from the public purse. Hesse is the only Federal Land
to award transportation contracts solely in the form of tender procedures.
The transport undertakings and orderers are constantly
faced with new challenges, whether an unforeseen high
rise in the cost of diesel, increasingly scarce fi nancial
resources or the growing quantities of traffi c performance
up for tender. This is aggravated by the unresolved
legal issues, such as the debate on permissible
award mechanisms for these services. National courts
have to issue rulings governing the details of the re-
Municipal companies booked the highest growth
Results of tenders in 2004/2005: international groups have also
had high growth. (Figures in thousand bus kilometres)
6,000
4,000
2,000
Source: DB data
5,875
–2,000
–4,000
–10,311
–6,000
–8,000
–10,000
DB Stadtverkehr municipal
–2,074
Land-owned
5,163
international
1,954
private
quirements defi ned by the European Court of Justice 1
relating to the fi nancing of local public transport. Appeal
proceedings which have been pending before the
Federal Administrative Court 2 since November 2005
may fi nally clarify the situation.
OVG Koblenz 3 ruled that the re-award of line concessions
was inadmissible in one case in which a municipal
company – in line with common practice – received
payments from the owner as part of the municipal tax
arrangements for public service conglomerates. That
judgement has restricted the scope for municipal
authorities to award transportation contracts to their
own companies. The European Court of Justice has
issued similar rulings governing the conditions of
contract award by municipal authorities to their own
companies without competition. This increases the
pressure on municipal transport undertakings to seek
more commercially viable solutions for urban transport.
The formation of ordering organisations following the
separation of the duty holders’ remit (orderers) and
ownership of transport undertakings (providers) has
promoted market opening even more. Approx. 46 million
bus kilometres have been awarded in Germany to
date in tenders for transportation contracts. The highest
numbers of tender procedures are currently held in the
Federal Laender of Hesse, Schleswig-Holstein and in