Image: Westbahn
The private ÖBB competitor Westbahn has returned to success after the Corona years and achieved its best operational result to date in 2023. Group sales rose from 90 million euros in 2022 to over 120 million euros and profits increased from 4 to 10 million euros. Only in 2019 was there a higher profit due to train sales. Last year, around 8 million passengers traveled on Westbahn trains, 35 percent more than in 2022 and 20 percent more than in 2019.
“Westbahn has grown up and reached where we actually wanted to be a few years ago,” said Florian Kazalek, who, along with Thomas Posch, has been the board duo of Westbahn parent Rail Holding AG for almost two years. However, the pandemic set back the plans of the rail company that started in 2011.
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The board sees customer response as the basis for further expansion steps. The company wants to expand the connection to Vorarlberg, where the Westbahn stops in 11 cities, and extend the trains to Munich to Stuttgart and stop on the way there in Augsburg, Ulm and, because of Legoland, in Günzburg. There are also plans to go east. Westbahn is trying to get a license in Hungary.
Around half of the 8 million passengers in 2023 were climate ticket holders. They contributed about a third of Westbahn’s sales, as Posch explained. Even if the Westbahn makes more sales with its own ticket sales, it is actively trying to attract climate ticket holders, including with its own train class.
Despite the recent profits, the initial losses from the first years of operation have not yet been completely offset. Whether there will be a dividend for the first time in 2023 is a matter for the supervisory board and the general meeting and has not yet been decided, said the two board members in an interview with the APA. Westbahn is owned 49.9 percent by the Haselstein family private foundation, 32.7 percent by the Swiss Augusta Holding owned by entrepreneur Erhard Grossnigg and 17.4 percent by the French state railway SNCF.
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