de en fr hr it


The costs for leasing replacement locomotives do not fall under the strict liability of railway infrastructure managers for loss of or damage to property of the carrier under the CUI Uniform Rules. Such liability, however, can be extended by the parties to the contract.


In July 2015, a train consisting of six locomotives of the German private railway company Lokomotion Gesellschaft für Schienentraktion derailed in Kufstein Station (Austria), resulting in damage to two of the locomotives. For the time of their repair, which took several months, Lokomotion leased replacement locomotives. Lokomotion is claiming these costs from ÖBBInfrastruktur, the railway infrastructure manager. The contract on the use of railway infrastructure for international transport which the two companies had concluded includes a reference to several Austrian acts and the Uniform Rules concerning the contract for the use of infrastructure in international rail traffic (‘the CUI Uniform Rules’). The latter provide, among others, that the infrastructure manager is liable for loss of or damage to property caused to the carrier during the use of the infrastructure and having its origin in the infrastructure. The Oberster Gerichtshof (Supreme Court, Austria), seized of the case, must decide whether the costs of leasing the replacement locomotives are to be regarded as such loss of or damage to property, and submitted in this context several questions to the Court of justice. First, it inquires whether the Court has jurisdiction to interpret the CUI Uniform Rules which form part of COTIF 1 , an international agreement concluded by both the EU and its Member States (therefore a “mixed agreement”) in the field of transport, in which the Union and the Member States share competence. Second, in the event that jurisdiction is established, the Court is invited to interpret the extent of liability of railway infrastructure managers under the CUI Uniform Rules.


In today’s Opinion, Advocate General Tamara Ćapeta proposes to the Court to answer that it has jurisdiction to interpret the CUI Uniform Rules.