For the 175th anniversary of the railway in Switzerland, the number of travelers is clearly on the rise, but not at the level before the coronavirus, i.e. 2019, the CFF announced on Monday. The average attendance in 2022 was 1.16 million people per day, or 30.8% more than in 2021, but still 12.5% less than in 2019.
The war in Ukraine has had a negative impact on supply chains, to which are added energy costs and inflation.
Due to low rainfall in the summer, more electricity had to be purchased to preserve the reservoirs in anticipation of a possible energy shortage in the spring of 2023, which weighed on the Energy Infrastructure segment.
Cost reduction
Without the losses of Infrastructure Energy (-165 million francs) and a value adjustment of -83 million on the CFF Cargo installations, the result would be balanced. Cargo Suisse plunged to -187.4 million, from +1.1 million in 2021.
The value adjustment was necessary, explains the management, because the support funds from the Confederation during the pandemic have expired and the next support package for single wagon traffic is still pending. The financial situation remains tense. Debt increased further by 2.5%, to reach more than 11 billion francs in 2022 (+27.7% compared to 2019).
“Saving 6 billion francs is not possible. We must slow down the evolution of costs, in order to be able to grow despite everything, but without a comparable or disproportionate increase in costs”, declared in a press conference Monika Ribar, president of the board of directors of the former federal government.
She spoke of projects primarily focused on enhancing efficiency and productivity. In the years to come, digitization programs will have to contribute to this.
Half-price season ticket record
In detail, main line traffic shows a loss of 47.2 million francs in 2022, following -478.5 million in 2021. Revenue from passenger traffic increased by 36.2% to 2.494 billion. Regional traffic finds the black figures at 10.6 million.
The number of general subscriptions reached 430,768 (+6.0% compared to 2021). Sales of half-price subscriptions posted a record at 2,968,615 (+4.9% compared to 2021 and +9.0% compared to 2019).
SBB Cargo International also recorded a loss of -0.3 million francs due to construction sites and disturbances in Germany. The Network Infrastructure segment also plunged into the red (-24.2 million following +24.7 million in 2021) due to rising prices. In the Real Estate business, the balance sheet is positive at 269 million and the situation has stabilized.
ats/ once more