Access to Service Facilities and Rail-Related Services: Their Role as Market Barriers and the Current Asymmetric Regulatory Framework

As is highlighted in the European Commission’s recent High-Speed Rail Plan presented in November 2025, access to service facilities and rail-related services remains one of the key barriers to developing a competitive passenger rail market. For passenger rail operators, access to station spaces and maintenance facilities is indispensable in the business case of any prospective market entrant in Europe.

Under the current Article 13 and Annex II of the Single European Railway Area Directive (SERA Directive), together with Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/2177, railway undertakings are entitled to fair access to service facilities under non-discriminatory conditions.

With regard to rail-related services, operators of service facilities are only obliged to provide additional services on non-discriminatory terms where such services are already provided to other railway undertakings. In both cases, under the SERA Directive charges are limited to the cost of providing the service plus a reasonable profit. Reasonableness of such profits is normally subject to oversight by national regulatory bodies.

Access to Passenger Stations and Station-Related Services

Access to passenger stations constitutes one of the key requirements for a new entrant operator. In this context, discussion concerns access to station spaces, lounges and ticket offices, rather than access to platforms, which form part of the railway infrastructure as is clarified by the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union.

Market conditions regarding access to stations vary considerably across Europe, as there is no uniform model for station management. In some member states, such as Spain, major stations are managed by the infrastructure manager. In others, stations are managed by subsidiaries of vertically integrated holdings, as is the case in France and Italy, or directly by the holding company, as in Poland.

Contractual arrangements therefore differ between member states. In some cases, railway undertakings contract directly with the infrastructure manager, while in others they contract with an entity belonging to a vertically integrated railway undertaking. In all cases, however, the legal framework requires separation between organisation and accounting, and any refusal of access must be justified in writing.

In parallel, certain station-related services, such as ticket office space, advertising and other commercial activities, may also be managed by third parties. Involvement of multiple actors has in some cases made enforcement of the SERA Directive obligations more complex.

The experiences of market liberalisation in Italy and Spain illustrate two distinct models reflecting different market structures. In Italy, in the early years of the entry of Italo, several disputes arose concerning access to lounges and ticket offices in stations. By contrast, in Spain the central role played by the infrastructure manager in station management has meant that disputes concerning access to stations have been significantly less problematic.

Access to Maintenance Facilities and Rail-Related Services

Unlike passenger stations, operators of maintenance facilities are not subject to the same requirements for organisational separation from dominant railway undertakings. Nevertheless, many member states have adopted separate corporate structures for these activities.

In several countries, maintenance facilities owned by state-owned operators were transferred from former holding companies during implementation of the Third and Fourth Railway Packages, while in other cases they were transferred to infrastructure managers.

The experience of opening passenger markets in Europe reveals diverging approaches. In member states such as Italy and Germany, operators of new entrants have built their own maintenance facilities following difficulties in obtaining access to facilities owned by incumbent state-owned operators.

A similar trend is now emerging in France, where existing competitors such as Trenitalia and prospective entrants are increasingly planning investments in their own facilities due to the declared levels of congestion at maintenance facilities owned by incumbent operators.

Conversely, in Spain the subsidiaries of Trenitalia (Iryo) and SNCF (Ouigo) are currently facing significant challenges regarding access to heavy maintenance facilities for high-speed rolling stock. In particular, Iryo has encountered difficulties in obtaining access to facilities required for the heavy maintenance of its fleet.

At present, such access has reportedly been refused by Renfe, the Spanish state-owned operator, and interim measures have been adopted by the national regulator to ensure non-discriminatory access.

Conclusion: The Role of Regulators and Capacity Enhancement Plans for Service Facilities

The role of regulatory bodies, as foreseen in the current legal framework, is crucial in resolving disputes concerning access to both passenger stations and maintenance facilities.

However, consideration should be given to whether national regulatory bodies currently have sufficient powers, expertise and resources to assess the validity of congestion declarations made by service facility operators and secure enforcement of the current obligations, particularly in the case of dominant service facility operators.

Furthermore, given the historical legacy of service facility ownership structures inherited from the period preceding the Third and Fourth Railway Packages, introducing clearer capacity enhancement obligations for certain operators of service facilities could be also considered. Such obligations could build on mechanisms already foreseen in the SERA Directive and the new Rail Capacity Management Regulation. Given the fundamentally different characteristics of individual service facilities, a more differentiated regulatory approach tailored to each type of facility could also be considered.