Der Vertrieb als Essential Facility

By the German rail reform, many conditions for the establishment of competition have been created but without including the sale of tickets. In practice opinions differ strongly on whether the regulation of ticket sales is required in the sense of an essential facility. Based on a network economics approach the extent to which regulation is a legitimate instrument of economic governance is analyzed. Shortcomings in the current regulatory framework are evaluated on the basis of a survey of competitors of Deutsche Bahn AG and the regional rail transport authorities of the federal states.

Derived from the process of network interconnection in telecommunications, an alternative framework for functioning competition in regional rail transport is developed. This design is compared with other concepts of regulation currently under discussion.