Railway companies and Bavaria are suing against new rail tolls for local passenger transport

Numerous railway companies have filed a lawsuit together with the Federal Association of Local Rail Transport (BSN) against the redesign of the so-called rail toll for local passenger transport. As the association announced, the Free State of Bavaria is also taking part in the lawsuit against the route prices, and this has also been coordinated with all federal states and association members. The lawsuit was filed with the Cologne Administrative Court.

The route prices are a type of rail toll that transport companies have to pay to Deutsche Bahn as the network operator for the use of the infrastructure. The costs for regional transport were previously capped - at the expense of freight and long-distance transport.

Hundreds of millions of euros in additional costs

However, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled in March that this price cap is not compatible with European law. That's why the Federal Network Agency published new route prices two weeks ago, which mean additional costs of several hundred million euros for local passenger transport this year alone.

According to the BSN, local rail transport is facing price increases of nine percent for 2026 and thus additional payments of 400 million euros. “There is a risk of further price increases in the following years,” said the association. The current application from DB InfraGo, which is responsible for the infrastructure, would result in an average increase of 7.8 percent for local rail passenger transport.

Federal states are also threatening to sue

The federal states have been threatening legal action for several weeks. In a joint statement, the state transport ministers recently demanded full financial compensation from the federal government for the increased route prices. They warn that the price increases could otherwise lead to traffic cancellations.

Regional transport in Germany is ordered by the federal states. They are outsourcing this task to a total of 26 authorities nationwide. The Federal Association of Local Rail Transport represents these authorities.