ÖBB: Earnings collapse despite passenger record

Although more and more people are using trains and buses, the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) were unable to translate this into economic success in the past financial year. The result fell by 42 percent to around 112 million euros. This is a “stable plus despite the economically challenging situation,” said ÖBB boss Andreas Matthä.

The main reason for the decline in profits was the sharp increase in electricity prices and the comparatively low increase in the price of diesel, which made rail kilometers significantly more expensive and made freight transport by road more attractive again. Only eight percent of rail kilometers are not driven by electric locomotives.

Ticket prices, however, were only raised moderately by around five percent in order not to fuel inflation, said Matthä. In Austria, never before have so many people taken the train as in 2023. 280,000 people already have a climate ticket. The number of passengers on both trains and buses increased by around ten percent compared to the previous year. A total of 493.6 million passengers used the federal railways’ services. Compared to pre-Corona 2019, this is only an increase of 3.5 percent. Home office also plays a role, said the ÖBB boss. “I don’t dare say so easily whether we will break the 500 million passenger mark this year,” it depends heavily 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 again. The paper and wood industry is recovering, and the volumes in individual wagons are also growing in the single digits again,” said CFO Manuela Waldner. Overall, an increase in earnings is planned this year.

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