SHARE
COPY LINK

EUROPEAN UNION

Deutsche Bahn irked over lack of rail competition in France

German railway Deutsche Bahn has told French counterpart SNCF that it is fed up with a lack of competition in France, according to a letter obtained by news agency AFP.

Deutsche Bahn irked over lack of rail competition in France
A German ICE train at Gare de l'Est in Paris. Photo: DPA

“We no longer want to accept the lack of reciprocity between Germany and France,” Bahn boss Hartmut Mehdorn said in a letter sent to French counterpart Guillaume Pepy.

“The opening of the German market has advanced further than in France,” and “the SNCF, like other French companies, profits greatly while we and other foreign companies always come up against the same problems in France,” Mehdorn said.

Those problems included “a closed market for passenger transport, a market that is theoretically open but inaccessible for urban transport, and major obstacles” in the freight sector, he added.

Mehdorn also said he was “surprised and affected” by strong attacks last week by Pepy against Deutsche Bahn.

Pepy claimed that a Bahn subsidiary had hacked into the SNCF computer system to try to hire train drivers away from the French group. The accusation “was groundless” Mehdorn said.

He added that the German railway had “not yet begun any official approach” towards investing in the high-speed Eurostar train that connects London with Brussels and Paris.

British press reports have said Deutsche Bahn would like to buy the part in Eurostar now owned by British interests, which Pepy had said was “premature, pretentious and arrogant.”

Tension has risen between the French and German rivals in particular since Deutsche Bahn and the Italian railway complained about a lack of European competition in a letter to the European Commission.

The German company has also sought recourse in court against the attribution in October of the public transport market in the southwestern French city of Bordeaux to the French group Keolis. It had previously been operated by the French company Veolia.

TRANSPORT

Copenhagen Metro lines reopen after two-week closure

Lines M3 and M4 of the Copenhagen Metro are back in service having reopened on Sunday, one day ahead of schedule.

Copenhagen Metro lines reopen after two-week closure

The two lines had been closed so that the Metro can run test operations before opening five new stations on the M4 line this summer.

The tests, which began on February 10th, are now done and the lines were running again as of Sunday evening, a day ahead of the original planned reopening on Monday February 26th.

“We are very pleased to be able to welcome our passengers on to our two lines M3 and M4,” head of operations with the Metro Søren Boysen said.

“The whole test procedure exceeded all expectations and went faster than expected and we can therefore get a head start on our reopening now,” he said.

Time set aside for potential repeat tests was not needed in the event, allowing the test closures to be completed ahead of time.

“Several of our many tests went better than expected and we have therefore not used all the time we needed for extra tests,” Boysen said.

The two lines serve around one million passengers every week, according to the Metro company.

READ ALSO: Copenhagen city government greenlights extension to Metro line

The new stops on the M4 line will be located south of central Copenhagen in the Valby and Sydhavn areas. The will have the names Haveholmen, Enghave Brygge, Sluseholmen, Mozarts Plads and København Syd (Copenhagen South).

The M3 and M4 lines, the newer sections of the Metro, opened in 2019 and 2020 respectively.

SHOW COMMENTS