The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that station access cannot be charged to train operators additionally as a service facility, but is “included in the minimum access package”. The ruling follows a complaint from Austrian open access operator WESTbahn, which has reportedly requested the lifting of station fees since 2012.
The Austrian regulator put the case to the ECJ and will now calculate how much WESTbahn and other operators have been overcharged in the past seven years. It is expected to be in excess of 200 million euros (£170.1m).
The ECJ preliminary decision applies to all other EU member states which have interpreted legislation on access fees in the same way as Austria - including Germany and Poland, whose infrastructure operators may now face similar requests for refunds.
We've read it in: Today’s Railways Europe, October 2019, p12
