Tuesday Brief: DB InfraGO chief warns against special access deal for Italo
Plus: Renfe extends high-speed tender deadline by two weeks / GoVolta opens Amsterdam–Paris tickets from EUR 19
DB InfraGO chief warns against special access deal for Italo
GERMANY: DB InfraGO has warned that a special access deal for Italo would not survive a legal challenge. The assessment puts Bundesnetzagentur’s preferred solution directly in conflict with the infrastructure manager set to implement it.
The proposed mechanism — a Neuverkehrsklausel — has no equivalent elsewhere in Europe. DB InfraGO’s chief executive argues that slots granted under an untested instrument could be struck down within eighteen months, exposing every operator that received them to legal uncertainty.
FlixTrain has standing to challenge. A successful court action would remove the instrument entirely, not just delay Italo — leaving the regulator without a workable solution and the market unresolved.
Bundesnetzagentur’s ruling is expected mid-June. It will determine whether Germany’s access rules can accommodate new entrants before the EU’s capacity regulation framework arrives in 2031.
Renfe extends high-speed tender deadline by two weeks
SPAIN: Renfe has pushed back the submission deadline for its high-speed train tender from 9 to 23 June after manufacturers requested more time to prepare their bids — the first sign of friction in a procurement Spain has positioned as its largest rolling stock purchase in history.
The financial opening on 9 September remains unchanged, leaving the overall path toward a contract award in early 2027 intact for now. The base order covers 30 trains at 350 km/h valued at EUR 1.36 billion, with an option for ten more.
GoVolta opens Amsterdam–Paris tickets from EUR 19
CROSS-BORDER: Dutch budget operator GoVolta has opened ticket sales for a daily Amsterdam–Paris service launching 14 December, with fares from EUR 19 — the first classic rail link between the two cities since the Etoile du Nord ended in 1996.
The service runs via Antwerp and Ghent, taking just over seven hours. GoVolta has carried 90,000 passengers to date and pulled its Amsterdam–Hamburg route in May after seven weeks, citing low demand — making the Paris launch its most commercially significant expansion to date.
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Bundestag clears Dresden–Prague tunnel after decades of delay
CROSS-BORDER: Germany’s Bundestag has approved detailed planning for a 30-kilometre high-speed tunnel through the Ore Mountains, unlocking a bilateral treaty with Czechia — but with no funding yet secured for construction.
The vote authorises DB InfraGO to begin engineering design and moves the state treaty with Czechia toward signature. Saxony is pushing for EUR 20m in planning funds in the 2027 federal budget — the minimum to keep a December 2032 construction start on the table. Without it, the treaty sits unsigned and the 2044 opening target slips before ground is broken.
A Bavarian startup is automating Europe’s track maintenance
A small technology unit inside one of Europe’s largest railway machinery groups is building robotic systems for track inspection, switch welding and component restoration — and has a live project running on the Dutch rail network.
ROBEL Rail Automation GmbH, based in Freilassing, Bavaria, is developing its Robot welding system in partnership with ProRail, Strukton Rail and VolkerRail. Eight welds at the Maasvlakte port complex have been monitored for close to a year; no deployment timeline has been confirmed.
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