Challenges confronting new traction providers of rail freight in Germany

Germany is one of the most liberalised countries in Europe for rail freight. Since the market became deregulated in 1991, 299 companies have obtained licences to haul freight of these approximately 130 actively engage in providing traction, but 85% of the market is still dominated by Railion, the freight arm of DB. Many obstacles to market entry have been identified in the literature since liberalisation. The goal of this paper is to assess if these obstacles persist and what new challenges have arisen. The study, based on a survey of new rail traction providers, suggests that several of the challenges identified in the literature have been overcome, but major problems persist because of the dominance of DB through its control of infrastructure and its market power.