Diederik Schrijvershof and Annabel Kingma are representing Federatie van Mobiliteitsbedrijven in Nederland (FMN) in proceedings on the merits against the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management (the “Ministry”). ALLRAIL VZW, FlixBus B.V. en FlixTrain GmbH joined the proceedings.
The subject of the proceedings on the merits is the Ministry’s intention again to directly award the concession for the main rail network (approximately 95% of the Dutch rail network) to NS as from 2025. The Ministry wishes to do so by directly awarding the main rail network concession, which will not take effect until 2025, to NS in 2023 at the latest already.
Both the scope of the proposed main rail network concession and the Ministry’s process and timing in directly awarding the main rail network concession to NS for the period starting in 2025 are the subject of debate.
The NRC newspaper reported on the case on 5 October 2021; see here.
