Länderbahn has been awarded the contract for several major routes in the Central Germany S-Bahn network. From 2026 onwards, the transport company will take over the heavily frequented S-Bahn routes between Leipzig and Halle. Länderbahn thus prevailed over the Deutsche Bahn subsidiary DB Regio, which currently operates the network.

International law firm Addleshaw Goddard successfully represented Länderbahn in the review proceedings that DB Regio had brought against the award decision of the contracting authorities in favour of Länderbahn. By decision of 22 June 2023 (1/SVK/014-23), the 1st Public Procurement Chamber of the Free State of Saxony (1. Vergabekammer des Freistaates Sachsen) rejected DB Regio's request and thus cleared the way for the contract to be awarded to Länderbahn.

Subject of the award procedure was one of the largest transport contracts in Germany. It runs for 12 years until 2038 and covers around 6 million train kilometres per year. The new S-Bahn network is another important milestone on NETINERA’s way to driving forward the expansion in Germany and strengthening its position in the most important European markets.

Länderbahn is one of the leading German transport companies and a subsidiary of NETINERA Group, which in turn belongs to Trenitalia and thus to the Italian Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane (FS Group). Since 2004, NETINERA has been operating local passenger transport on Germany’s rails and roads as a reliable mobility partner.

Addleshaw Goddard's public procurement team, led by partner Dr Jan-Oliver Schrotz (Hamburg), included counsel Stefan Bauer (Munich) and associate Dr Theresa Röttger (Hamburg).

The in-house legal team of Länderbahn was led by Dr Heiko Piesbergen (Head of Legal at NETINERA), who is currently expanding the NETINERA legal department and is looking for new colleagues for his aspiring team.

DB Regio was advised by Otting Zinger Rechtsanwälte. The public transport authority was represented by Dr Thomas Stockmann of Schumann Rechtsanwälte.

Addleshaw Goddard has deep industry expertise in transport, traffic and logistics and regularly advises long-standing client Länderbahn in public procurement proceedings, recently in the successful objection to award initially granted to a competitor of the transitional transport of the express service in East Bavaria (VK Südbayern, decision of 06.07.2022, 3194.Z3-3_01-21-72).

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