Although more and more people are using trains and buses, the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) have not been able to translate this into economic success. The 2023 result collapsed by 42 percent to 112 million euros. The reason for the decline in profits is primarily the sharp increase in electricity prices, which makes rail kilometers more expensive, and the comparatively low increase in diesel prices, which in turn makes road transport more attractive, it is said.
The passenger ticket prices, however, were only raised moderately by around five percent in order not to fuel inflation, said ÖBB boss Andreas Matthä on Friday. The 2022 result was also positively influenced by a reversal of provisions.
Sales rose by 7.5 percent to 5.02 billion euros in 2023. This is a “stable plus despite the economically challenging situation,” says Matthä. In Austria, never before have so many people taken the train as last year. 280,000 people have a climate ticket. The number of passengers on both trains and buses increased by ten percent. A total of 493.6 million passengers were recorded – an increase of 3.5 percent compared to 2019. Home office plays a role in this, according to the ÖBB boss. “I don’t dare say so loosely whether we will break the 500 million passenger mark this year,” it depends largely on the bus division.
Operating loss in freight transport
The transport of goods caused difficulties: “It was the most difficult of 20 years of freight transport”, and an operational loss was even recorded. The volume transported fell by 11.2 percent to 78.5 million tons, and goods sales only fell by 1.9 percent.
The freight subsidiary Rail Cargo Austria lost meters, especially on short routes. Because of the weak economy, fewer goods were transported overall, and the “electricity-diesel divide” did the rest. But new customers were also acquired, “Beer now also travels by train from Schwechat to the west” and the Spar chain is transporting more goods by rail. In the first quarter of 2024, “a slight upturn in the numbers will be noticed once more. The paper and wood industry is recovering, and the volumes in individual wagons are also growing in the single digits once more,” said CFO Manuela Waldner. Overall, an increase in earnings is planned this year.
Image: HANS KLAUS TECHT (APA/HANS KLAUS TECHT)
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Image: HANS KLAUS TECHT (APA/HANS KLAUS TECHT)
Last year, ÖBB invested 4.5 billion euros in infrastructure and new trains. By 2030, 330 new trains are expected to enter service and capacity will increase by 93,000 seats. In long-distance transport, only 80.3 percent of trains were on time, the construction sites in Germany and Italy gave rise to fears of a similar situation this year, and it would be difficult to maintain punctuality in local transport at 95.7 percent.
Regarding the non-expansion of the Summerauerbahn Linz-Freistadt, Matthä said that due to a negative economic cost-benefit calculation, the project was “currently” not included in the “Target Network 2040”. The expansion was not one of the 25 projects that passed this review. “That doesn’t mean that it can’t happen,” says Matthä, for example if there is a commitment from the Czech side to continue this route. “Then the project will probably move up” on the ranking list, said the ÖBB boss.
When asked regarding the high-performance railway that is to be built on a new route in the Innviertel, Matthä replied: “There are rough considerations for a route.” We are at the very beginning, a route study, citizen participation procedures, etc. need to be carried out. “There will still be a lot of water running down the Inn until there are concrete plans.”
