Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2012:330
Date: 2012-06-07
Language of the case: German
Subject matter: Transport
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Austria

Summary — Judgment of the Court (First Chamber), 22 November 2012 1. Questions referred for a preliminary ruling — Reference to the Court — National court or tribunal within the meaning of Article 267 TFEU — Definition (Art. 267 TFEU) 2. Transport — Rail transport — Regulation No 1371/2007 — Rights and obligations of rail passengers — Information to be provided by railway undertakings to passengers during the journey — Information on main connecting services — Extent (European Parliament and Council Regulation No 1371/2007, Art. 8(2) and Annex II, part II) 3. Transport — Rail transport — Directive 2001/14 — Allocation of railway infrastructure capacity and levying of charges — Obligations of the infrastructure manager towards railway undertakings — Provision of minimum services — Extent — Obligation to provide real time information on trains constituting main connecting services operated by other railway undertakings (European Parliament and Council Regulation No 1371/2007, Art. 8(2) and Annex II, part II; European Parliament and Council Directive 2001/14, as amended by Directive 2004/49, recital 1, Art. 5 and Annex II) 1. To determine whether a body making a reference is a court or tribunal within the meaning of Article 267 TFEU, which is a question governed by EU law alone, the Court takes account of a number of factors, such as whether the body is established by law, whether it is permanent, whether its jurisdiction is compulsory, whether its procedure is inter partes, whether it applies rules of law and whether it is independent. In this respect, the Schienen-Control Kommission (Austrian Rail Supervisory Commission) must be regarded as a court or tribunal within the meaning of Article 267 TFEU. (see paras 27, 31) 2. Article 8(2) of, in conjunction with Part II of Annex II to, Regulation No 1371/2007 on rail passengers’ rights and obligations must be interpreted as meaning that the information on main connecting services must, in addition to scheduled departure times, also include delays to or cancellations of those connecting services, whichever railway undertaking operates them. (see para. 43, operative part 1) 3. Article 8(2) of, in conjunction with Part II of Annex II to, Regulation No 1371/2007 on rail passengers’ rights and obligations and Article 5 of, in conjunction with Annex II to, Directive 2001/14 on the allocation of railway infrastructure capacity and the levying of charges for the use of railway infrastructure, as amended by Directive 2004/49, must be interpreted as meaning that the infrastructure manager is required to make available to railway undertakings, in a non-discriminatory manner, real time data relating to trains operated by other railway undertakings, in so far as those trains constitute main connecting services within the meaning of Part II of Annex II to Regulation No 1371/2007. That information is necessary for any railway undertaking to be in a position to fulfil the obligations it has under Regulation No 1371/2007. Moreover, to ensure fair competition on the passenger rail transport market, and not to run counter both to the objective of greater integration of the railway sector, mentioned in recital 1 in the preamble to Directive 2001/14, and to the obligation of providing passengers with information, it must be ensured that all railway undertakings are in a position to provide passengers with a comparable quality of service, irrespective of the size of the undertaking’s network. (see paras 46, 47, 50, operative part 2)