About international passenger service

Railway undertakings that hold an EU licence, including insurance and a safety certificate, have the right to access the state's railway infrastructure as well as infrastructure owned by A/S Storebæltsforbindenen and A/S Øresundsforbindenen for the purpose of carrying out passenger transport, cf. implementing regulation on criteria for the application of economic equilibrium, executive order on railway undertaking´s access to passenger transport and Directive 2012/34/EU art. 10 and 11.

The applicant shall notify the regulatory bodies concerned of its intention to operate a new international passenger service prior to requesting infrastructure capacity from the infrastructure manager

Decisions on capacity allocation from the infrastructure manager can be appealed to the Danish Regulatory Body

The Danish Regulatory Body shall publish on its website the notification made by the applicant with the exception of any commercially sensitive information, without delay and inform thereof the appropriate entities. Notifications can be found under “Notification of new international rail passenger services” below.

Principal purpose

The introduction of new, open-access international rail passenger service with intermediate stops should not be used to open up the market for domestic passenger services, but merely focus on stops that are ancillary to the international journey. The principal purpose should be to carry passengers travelling on an international journey.

At the request of competent authorities, the infrastructure manager or the railway undertaking performing the public service contract, the regulatory body shall verify the principal purpose of a proposed new service. Requests by the entities referred shall be made within four weeks from the publication of the applicant’s notification on the regulatory body’s website. Entities that have the right to make requests for both principal purpose and economic equilibrium may do so simultaneously.

During the assessment process The Danish Regulatory Body will carry out a case-by-case assessment taking into account both qualitative and quantitative criteria. The methodology applied by the regulatory body is described in a specified document in the info box. 

The criteria would be, for example, the impact on the profitability of routes covered by a public service contract, including the resulting impact on the net costs of the competent public authority which awarded the contract, passenger demand, fares, ticketing arrangements and of the proposed new route number of stops on both sides of the border and their location, as well as timetable and number of departures. 

The regulatory body shall make a decision within six weeks at the latest from the receipt of all relevant information. The decision will be notified the applicant and published on the regulatory body’s website.

If The Danish Regulatory Body determines that the principal purpose of the proposed new service is international passenger service, asses to rail infrastructure shall be granted. If the principal purpose test shows that the principal purpose is to carry passengers between stations located in the member state where the regulatory body is established, the regulatory body shall requalify the applicant into an application for a national passenger service and inform the applicant thereof. The applicant shall then follow the relevant national routes to apply for the access to railway infrastructure.

As an exception to the starting point of opening the market for passenger transport, however, it applies that market access may possibly be limited in order to protect existing arrangements under which railway undertakings carry out public service transport (PSO-contracts).

Railway undertakings that wish to establish new routes with passenger transport must

• No later than 18 months before the transition to the relevant new timetable, submit a notification to the Danish Regulatory Body

However, this obligation to notify new routes only applies if:

• The new route is not covered by a PSO contract.
• The new route, in whole or in part, will be able to function as an alternative to a transport covered by a valid PSO contract.
• The new route must run according to a timed timetable.
• The new route is completely new or constitutes a significant change to an existing route. It is not a question of a new route if it is only a matter of replacing the railway undertaking on an existing route.

It is important that the railway companies comply with the notification requirement, as

• Failure to observe, will mean that the railway undertaking concerned will later risk receiving demands for the cessation or restrictions of passenger transport on the new route.

The notification formular can be found at the bottom of this page. The formular shows which information must be submitted in connection with the notification.

Economic equilibrium

The right of access to rail infrastructure can be limited where that right would compromise the economic equilibrium of public service contracts.

At the request of competent authorities, the infrastructure manager or the railway undertaking performing the public service contract, the regulatory body shall determine whether the proposed new international rail passenger service will compromise the economic equilibrium of a public service contract. Requests by the entities referred shall be made within four weeks from the publication of the applicant’s notification on the regulatory body’s website. Entities that have the right to make requests for both principal purpose and economic equilibrium may do so simultaneously.

In the case of the economic equilibrium test, the regulatory body may request information from several entities involved in the test.

The decision is based on an objective method and assessments described in the document about the methodology. The regulatory body shall make a decision within six weeks at the latest from the receipt of all relevant information. The decision will be notified the applicant and published on The Danish Regulatory Body’s website.

As a result of the economic equilibrium test, the regulatory body shall make a decision under establishing a single European railway area, on the basis of which the right of access to the rail infrastructure shall be granted, modified, granted only under conditions or denied.

Before making a decision that would result in denying access to rail infrastructure for the proposed new international passenger service, the regulatory body shall give the opportunity to the applicant to adjust the plan so that it would not compromise the economic equilibrium of the public service contract.