The city of Karlsruhe has placed its local public transport on a new footing by directly awarding a public service contract under Regulation 1370/2007 to its municipal transport company VBK. The directly awarded public service contract has a term of 22.5 years and the economic volume is in the billion euro range. As with its sister company AVG, the direct award was prepared for a long time and was costly. In Karlsruhe, the special feature is that it is the interaction between the two Karlsruhe transport companies (AVG and VBK) that constitutes the “Karlsruhe model”. AVG, as a railroad company, provides local rail passenger transport outside Karlsruhe with so-called TramTrains, and VBK operates local public transport in the city of Karlsruhe. AVG’s TramTrains can use both rail and streetcar infrastructure. This capability allows passengers to travel by rail into the Karlsruhe city area without changing trains; in the Karlsruhe city area, AVG’s rail services become streetcar services operated by its sister company VBK. The new public service contract therefore also has considerable significance for the Karlsruhe metropolitan area.

Advisors to the City of Karlsruhe/Verkehrsbetriebe Karlsruhe GmbH (VBK): OPPENLÄNDER Rechtsanwälte, Stuttgart: Prof. Dr. Christofer Lenz, Dr. Corina Jürschik, LL.M., Dr. Henrike Schulte, Julia Felger (all Public Transport, Public Commercial Law), Dr. Carl Höfer (Corporate Law)

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