The Austrian coalition government has agreed on a structural reform of the national railway company ÖBB. It is working on a draft law that could create tighter control over ÖBB subsidiaries, including Rail Cargo Group.
If approved, the law would convert various ÖBB subsidiaries into limited liability companies (GmbH). Currently, the passenger subsidiary ÖBB-Personenverkehr and the freight department Rail Cargo Austria are public limited companies.
A key difference between the two formats is that GmbH would allow the parent company to issue directives to the respective management boards. In other words, GmbH subsidiaries would no longer operate entirely independently from the parent company.
Rail Cargo Austria is the operational parent company of Rail Cargo Group, meaning that the change also relates to the freight operator.
Millions in cost savings
The stated goal of the conversion into GmbHs is to save around €80 million each year. By 2029, a total of €250 should have been saved. Austria hopes to achieve this through the elimination of redundancies. Moreover, the change will enable parent company ÖBB to “reach to market conditions”, CEO Andreas Matthä is quoted as saying in Cash.
Before the law is approved, it will open for public consultation. The amended law should then come into force on 1 January 2027. The infrastructure manager ÖBB-Infrastruktur will remain a public limited company, because European law requires infrastructure managers to operate independently.