Draft law to mitigate the rise in track access charges for federal railways

When railway companies want to use new tracks and stations, they pay so-called track access charges. These fees were set to rise sharply from 2026 because the state provided DB InfraGO AG with more capital. The law is intended to curb this increase by lowering the legally defined interest rate used to determine how the railway may earn a return on its equity. Specifically, the interest rate will be set to the average of the risk-free interest rate and the market-based equity interest rate.