The company Flixtrain has notified the Regulatory Body of its intention to operate a new rail passenger service between Brussels and Paris, with intermediate stops in Mons and Saint-Quentin, from 1st January 2021. Flixtrain’s notification form can be accessed here. The Regulatory Body has informed the Mobility Minister, the SNCB and Infrabel of this notification. […]
Belgian and European legislation provide some provisions which impose an obligation for train operators which hold a dominant position on the national market, to clearly separate organisational and decisional activities related to transport of passengers from those related with service facilities. In this framework, the Belgian Regulatory Body (Belgian RB) ensures that both types of […]
On 5 April 2019, the Regulatory Body issued a decision on a number of complaints received about Brussels Airport Company’s compliance with the conditions of use of the airport. The Regulatory Service has no power to process those complaints and thus declared them inadmissible. (Available in French only).
The railway Regulatory Bodies of the countries active on the Rail Freight Corridor North Sea-Mediterranean (RFC NSM) issued a first common monitoring statement. This document contains the following items: The existing cooperation between the supervisory authorities as well as the cooperation between the several stakeholders on the RFC; Some findings by the supervisory authorities regarding […]
BLS Cargo has announced having signed an agreement to acquire the Belgian rail freight operator Crossrail. BLS Cargo is the second Swiss rail freight operator. BLS Cargo is a subsidiary of BLS which is the main competitor of the Swiss incumbent. However SNCF Fret is shareholder of BLS Cargo with 45% of its shares. Before, […]
The European Commission has decided to prohibit the merger planned between Alstom and Siemens Mobility. This decision follows negative advice issued by several national competition authorities (including the German competition authorities). The European Commission considers that this merger would have lead to two important areas (signaling system and high speed trains) dramatically reducing the competition […]
On 27 February, the Dutch state announced that it had purchased a 14% stake in Air France-KLM. France already held a 14.3% share in the airline. In its declaration to AMF (the French Financial Markets Authority), the Dutch state declared that it was not planning to buy more shares or to take control of the […]
Decision D-2019-01-S concerning the appeal of Railtraxx related to the safety procedure S460 On the 28th of February 2019 the Regulatory Body took Decision D-2019-01-S, related to the appeal of railway undertaking Railtraxx concerning the safety procedure S460 used by Infrabel. Railtraxx decided not to proceed with the appeal, as a consequence the appeal became […]
The new competences of the regulator resulting from the 4th railway package. The Law of January 11, 2019 transposes into Belgian law the 4th railway package, which essentially opens the market for domestic passenger transport to competition. In this context, the scope of the regulator’s powers has been broadened. In terms of competences linked to […]
The Regulatory Body is a member of the Thessaloniki Forum, a European working group which unites all European economic regulators in charge of airports. In 2018, the Thessaloniki Forum adopted two new papers: “Non-discrimination under the Airport Charges Directive” and “The use of selective criteria in the Economic regulation of airports”. The text of these […]
The Regulatory Body was asked for advice by the infrastructure manager Infrabel. This advice dealt with the composition of the MBPS, more specifically with a view to arbitration. The Regulatory Service did not consider it desirable that both itself or the FPS Mobility should exercise a decision-making function within the Management Board. External arbitration was […]
Due to legislative developments, the charging model for direct costs of Infrabel had to be adjusted so that the tariffs could be determined in accordance with the regulations. The Regulatory Body investigated these adjustments with a view to approving the cost model, in accordance with Article 48 of the Rail Codex. The analysis of the […]
