Abbreviation | EBA |
---|---|
Formation | 1994-01-01 |
Type | Government agency |
Legal status | Established by Act on the Federal Administration of Railway Traffic [1] |
Purpose | licensing and supervision authority for federal railways. |
Headquarters | Bonn |
Region served | Germany |
Official language | German |
President | Gerald Hörster |
Website | http://www.eba.bund.de/ |
The German Federal Railway Authority (German : Eisenbahn-Bundesamt, EBA) has been the independent federal authority for the regulation of the railways in Germany since 1 January 1994. It is under the supervision and direction of the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport and is headed by a president.
The EBA is the inspectorate and authorising body for the majority of German domestic, railway infrastructure companies that are owned by the government, referred to as federal railways (Eisenbahnen des Bundes or EdB), and for German and foreign railway transport operators in Germany.
Non federally owned public railways and privately operated railways are under the supervision of the German states ( Bundesländer ), who can choose to transfer this responsibility to the EBA (§ 5 Abs. 2 AEG). To date 11 states, with the exception of Berlin, Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse and Lower Saxony have chosen to do so. In such cases the EBA works under the direction of the states.
Since 1 January 2007 the EBA has run the railway vehicle register for Germany in accordance with § 5 Abs. 1e of the General Railway Law (Allgemeines Eisenbahngesetz or AEG) and the EU guidelines in §25a of the AEG and is therefore responsible for the issue of vehicle index and classification numbers.
The EBA has a flat organisational structure. Over 300 employees work at its headquarters in Bonn on the core issues, and another 1,000 people carry out the operational work of inspections and authorisations, occasionally on the spot, in twelve branches at 15 locations. Also within the purview of the Federal Railway Office is the responsibility for investigating railway accidents.
In addition, the EBA has also taken on the responsibility for the approval and oversight of maglev railways under the General Maglev Law (Allgemeines Magnetschwebebahngesetz or AMbG').
Since 1 January 2006 the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) has been responsible for overseeing access to the railway infrastructure. Detailed regulations contain rules about the non-discriminatory access to railway infrastructure and the principles for granting rewards for the use of railway infrastructure under the Railway Infrastructure User Regulation (Eisenbahninfrastruktur-Benutzungsverordnung or EIBV).
With effect from 1 January 1994, as part of the structural reformation of the German railways, the former so-called "special assets" of the Federal Republic of Germany - the Deutsche Bundesbahn and the Deutsche Reichsbahn - were reorganised into an operational division, the Deutsche Bahn AG (DB AG), and two national authorities, the Federal Railway Office (Eisenbahn-Bundesamt) and Federal Railway Assets ( Bundeseisenbahnvermögen or BEV), both subordinated to the Federal Ministry for Transport, Construction and Housing. A merger of these two authorities, originally planned for 2009, has currently foundered.
The first president of the EBA was Horst Stuchly. His successor, Armin Keppel, retired in 2008. Keppel also led the Bundeseisenbahnvermögen in 2007.
In 2009, a new president, Gerald Hörster, took up office.
In 2019, German Centre for Rail Traffic Research was founded at the Federal Railway Agency. [2]
Approvals for old technology:
New technology:
The Deutsche Bahn AG is the national railway company of Germany, and a state-owned enterprise under the control of the German government. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company (AG) and the largest railway company in the world.
The Deutsche Reichsbahn, also known as the German National Railway, the German State Railway, German Reich Railway, and the German Imperial Railway, was the German national railway system created after the end of World War I from the regional railways of the individual states of the German Empire. The Deutsche Reichsbahn has been described as "the largest enterprise in the capitalist world in the years between 1920 and 1932"; nevertheless, its importance "arises primarily from the fact that the Reichsbahn was at the center of events in a period of great turmoil in German history".
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The Hanover–Würzburg high-speed railway is a double-track, electrified high-speed railway between Hanover and Würzburg in Germany, 327 km (203 mi) in length. The line, built between 1973 and 1991, was the longest contiguous new project constructed by Deutsche Bundesbahn. The total costs were almost DM 11.9 billion.
The Nuremberg–Ingolstadt high-speed railway is a 78-kilometre-long (48 mi) high-speed railway running between the cities of Nuremberg and Ingolstadt in Bavaria, Germany. It branches off the Nuremberg–Regensburg railway and runs parallel to the A9 Autobahn to Ingolstadt, where it joins the Munich–Treuchtlingen railway at Ingolstadt Nord station.
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The Nuremberg–Erfurt high-speed railway is a 191-kilometre-long (119 mi) German high-speed railway, between Nuremberg and Erfurt. The line is listed in Germany's federal transport plan as Verkehrsprojekt Deutsche Einheit Nr.8.1 and is a section of the high-speed route between Berlin and Munich and a section of the line connecting Italy and Scandinavia in the European Union's Trans-European Rail network. It consists of an upgraded line between Nuremberg and Ebensfeld and a new line between Ebensfeld and Erfurt. The journey time between Erfurt and Nuremberg will be reduced to approximately one hour and 20 minutes after completion.
The Erfurt–Leipzig/Halle high-speed railway is a 123 km (76 mi)-long high-speed line in Germany between Erfurt and Leipzig and Halle, built as part of the Berlin–Munich high-speed railway.
The Frankfurt–Mannheim high-speed railway is a planned German high-speed railway between Frankfurt am Main and Mannheim.
In Germany and Austria, the running of railway services for a railway administration or the regional network of a large railway company was devolved to railway divisions, variously known as Eisenbahndirektionen (ED), Bundesbahndirektionen (BD) or Reichsbahndirektionen (RBD/Rbd). Their organisation was determined by the railway company concerned or by the state railway and, in the German-speaking lands at least, they formed the intermediate authorities and regional management organisations within the state railway administration's hierarchy. On the formation of the Deutsche Bahn AG in 1994 the system of railway divisions (Eisenbahndirektionen) in Germany was discontinued and their tasks were transferred to new "business areas".
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DB AutoZug GmbH was a German rail transport company that provided automobile (Motorail) and night passenger train services for Deutsche Bahn AG. It was based in Dortmund and was a wholly owned subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn AG. On 30 September 2013 the company was merged into DB AG's long-distance division DB Fernverkehr.
The Frankfurt Airport loop is a 15.8-kilometre-long (9.8 mi) double-track railway line connecting Frankfurt and Frankfurt Airport and operated as part of the Frankfurt S-Bahn. It is electrified at 15 kV/16.7 Hz.
The Frankfurt–Göttingen railway is a continuously double track and electrified main line in Hesse and southern Lower Saxony, Germany. The line was initially built from Bebra towards Fulda by the Kurhessen State Railway. After the Prussian annexation of the Electorate of Hesse as a result of the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, it was completed to Frankfurt as the Frankfurt-Bebra Railway. The line was later extended from Bebra to Göttingen.
The Nuremberg–Würzburg Railway is a German trunk line railway in northern Bavaria, connecting the city of Nuremberg with Würzburg, the two largest cities in Franconia, and passing through Fürth, Neustadt an der Aisch and Kitzingen. In addition to hourly Regional-Express trains and numerous freight trains, it is served by Intercity-Express trains during the day at half-hourly intervals with some gaps.
The Federal Authority for Railway Accident Investigation is an agency of the Government of Germany established in 2017 and charged with investigating rail accidents. Its head office is in the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) Robert-Schuman-Platz 1 office building in Bonn.
The Karlsruhe–Basel high-speed railway is a new line being built on the route of the Mannheim–Karlsruhe–Basel railway. As a result of the project, the railway through the Rhine Valley is being upgraded to four continuous tracks and its operational efficiency will be increased as a result of the segregation of the various transport flows. The travel time for passenger services between Karlsruhe and Basel is to be shortened by 31 minutes. The project forms part of the Rotterdam–Genoa corridor and part of it is also part of the Main line for Europe. In September 2010, it was forecast to be completed in 2020.
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